Nokia Networks, the infrastructure arm of Nokia, reached an agreement to buy US-based Eden Rock Communications, a specialist in multi-vendor self-organising networks (SON).

According to Nokia, SON is “one of the fastest growing segments in the mobile broadband industry”.

Financial details were not disclosed, but the transaction is expected to be completed in Q3.

Nokia, in a statement, said Eden Rock’s Eden-NET centralised SON solution and Nokia Networks’ SON technologies were “highly complementary”.

“With this combination of capabilities, we will effectively address a key customer pain point – automated optimisation of heterogenous networks in a multivendor environment,” said Peter Patomella, VP of CEM and OSS at Nokia Networks. “By combining our products into one, we will accelerate the delivery of a compelling solution for this problem and provide best-in-class network performance and customer experience.”

As a part of the acquisition process, Eden Rock will spin-off a new company with its spectrum sharing solutions, technology and patents.

An additional announcement will follow on the new company at the close of the transaction with Nokia Networks.

SON expansion
The Eden Rock acquisition is the latest in a recent spate of SON announcements by the Finnish firm.

At this year’s Mobile World Congress, Nokia Networks unveiled the iSON Manager, a centralised SON solution for the automation of multivendor heterogeneous networks.

The company also launched a new cloud based OSS/CEM business model that delivers the Nokia iSON Manager software to operators “fast and flexibly”

Nokia cited a 2014 forecast from IHS Infonetics – no doubt approvingly – that the size of the optimisation and SON market will exceed €5 billion globally by 2018.

Nokia is ramping up its presence in the network equipment market following the sale of its devices business to Microsoft last year. It plans to buy network rival Alcatel-Lucent for $16.6 billion.