Data Analytics Architectural Framework for Smarter Radio Resource Management in 5G Radio Access Networks

Along with supporting new business opportunities, data analytics -- understood as the pursuit of extracting meaning from raw data -- will be key to getting 5G radio access networks (RANs) efficiently rolled out and operated. The exploitation of data analytics services within the RAN itself, that is, to empower the operation of the RRM algorithms executed within the RAN nodes, is an incipient area of interest that broadens the more well-established applicability of using data analytics for on-top-of-the-RAN operations. In this respect, this article is an attempt to put a spotlight on this topic by motivating a plausible data analytics architectural framework for data-driven, smarter RRM algorithms.