Mobile networks are rapidly getting more complex, soon to be rife with LTE macro base stations, small cells, metro cells, pico cells, femtocells, and some of them integrated with Wi-Fi or WiMAX. All of that suggests a network landscape that could use a little organizing and optimizing, and research firm iGR Inc. said this week that is exactly what will lead to greater adoption of Self-Organizing Network (SON) solutions, which are based on 3GPP standard Releases 8, 9, 10 and 11. The firm has a new study, "Impact of Self Optimizing Networks on U.S. LTE Infrastructure, 2011 - 2016," that looks at how network management is migrating from a centralized concept to something of a hybrid, partially centralized and partially decentralized configuration. This will happen as SONs simplify legacy standard operational tasks via automated triggers for self-configuration, self-optimization, and self-management functions. Benefits will include better integration between 2G, 3G and 4G network elements co-existing with one another, as well as scalability and robustness, iGR said. Check out the iGR press release for more