T-Mobile US(s tmus) has tapped Eden Rock Communications, a Seattle-area wireless networking startup, to add some self-awareness to its networks. Eden Rock has loaded its self-organizing network (SON) software into T-Mobile's wireless infrastructure, allowing it to reconfigure itself as network demand and traffic patterns change.
For instance, if Eden Rock's Eden-Net system finds that users start massing on a regular basis in a certain part of the network -- if, say, a new park opens up -- it can start boosting power and tilting antennas on the towers nearby, growing and shrinking cells to increase the capacity or expand the coverage available. The result: fewer dropped calls and stronger data links.
If the technology sounds familiar to Gigaom readers, it's because we've written extensively about a similar company called Intucell, which was acquired by Cisco Systems(s csco) in 2012 for $475 million. Intucell technology is in AT&T's(s t) network, optimizing its HSPA cells.