Uncovering Issues in the Radio Access Network by Looking at the Neighbors

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Suárez-Varela, José, Lutu, Andra
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866908328837251072
author Suárez-Varela, José
Lutu, Andra
author_facet Suárez-Varela, José
Lutu, Andra
contents Mobile network operators (MNOs) manage Radio Access Networks (RANs) with massive amounts of cells over multiple radio generations (2G-5G). To handle such complexity, operations teams rely on monitoring systems, including anomaly detection tools that identify unexpected behaviors. In this paper, we present c-ANEMON, a Contextual ANomaly dEtection MONitor for the RAN based on Graph Neural Networks (GNNs). Our solution captures spatio-temporal variations by analyzing the behavior of individual cells in relation to their local neighborhoods, enabling the detection of anomalies that are independent of external mobility factors. This, in turn, allows focusing on anomalies associated with network issues (e.g., misconfigurations, equipment failures). We evaluate c-ANEMON using real-world data from a large European metropolitan area (7,890 cells; 3 months). First, we show that the GNN model within our solution generalizes effectively to cells from previously unseen areas, suggesting the possibility of using a single model across extensive deployment regions. Then, we analyze the anomalies detected by c-ANEMON through manual inspection and define several categories of long-lasting anomalies (6+ hours). Notably, 45.95% of these anomalies fall into a category that is more likely to require intervention by operations teams.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_14686
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Uncovering Issues in the Radio Access Network by Looking at the Neighbors
Suárez-Varela, José
Lutu, Andra
Networking and Internet Architecture
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
Mobile network operators (MNOs) manage Radio Access Networks (RANs) with massive amounts of cells over multiple radio generations (2G-5G). To handle such complexity, operations teams rely on monitoring systems, including anomaly detection tools that identify unexpected behaviors. In this paper, we present c-ANEMON, a Contextual ANomaly dEtection MONitor for the RAN based on Graph Neural Networks (GNNs). Our solution captures spatio-temporal variations by analyzing the behavior of individual cells in relation to their local neighborhoods, enabling the detection of anomalies that are independent of external mobility factors. This, in turn, allows focusing on anomalies associated with network issues (e.g., misconfigurations, equipment failures). We evaluate c-ANEMON using real-world data from a large European metropolitan area (7,890 cells; 3 months). First, we show that the GNN model within our solution generalizes effectively to cells from previously unseen areas, suggesting the possibility of using a single model across extensive deployment regions. Then, we analyze the anomalies detected by c-ANEMON through manual inspection and define several categories of long-lasting anomalies (6+ hours). Notably, 45.95% of these anomalies fall into a category that is more likely to require intervention by operations teams.
title Uncovering Issues in the Radio Access Network by Looking at the Neighbors
topic Networking and Internet Architecture
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.14686