UE side Cross-layer Metrics as a Key Enable for Zero Touch Networks

Cellular networks are moving to fully automated schemes to minimize human intervention and maximize efficiency. This is what is called the Zero Touch networks paradigm. Until now, such management has been based on Drive Test results together with network-side metrics. However, this approach is clearly insufficient to achieve Zero Touch due to the complexity and high cost of collecting user side data in an increasingly vast and heterogeneous infrastructure. In this regard, the present work describes a novel framework for Zero Touch cellular networks that exploits the advantages of integrating User Equipment metrics. The suitability of the proposal has bee verified using data acquired from a commercial mobile network, achieving promising results through the use of traditional as well as User Equipment side metrics.