For years, operators tried to solve capacity issues by adding more spectrum or deploying more sites. But with 5G traffic exploding and densification becoming expensive, hardware-driven RAN tuning is hitting its limits.
This is why the new wave of optimization is increasingly software-led.
Modern AI/ML engines can learn traffic behavior, identify interference at cell-edge, and optimize tilt, power, beamforming, and handover logic in near real time.
You see this shift across the industry — from TelcoEdge Inc’s AI-native control loops, to Ericsson’s Intelligent RAN Automation, to Nokia’s EdenNet SON, and Mavenir’s open RAN analytics.
None of these overshadow the point; they simply reflect a trend:
Intelligence is becoming the new form of network capacity.
But here’s the key question for practitioners:
With densification rising, will software-defined optimization be enough — or will operators still hit hard limits without fresh spectrum?
Curious to hear how engineers and planners in this community see it unfolding.