METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MANAGING DEVICE TO DEVICE COMMUNICATION

There is provided a method and apparatus for managing device-to-device communications in a wireless network, for example a self-organizing network. The method includes collecting, by a wireless network controller, information regarding one or more key performance indicators (KPIs). The information relates to one or more of a 5 ranking of the one or more KPIs and a target value of the one or more KPIs. The method further includes determining, by the wireless network controller, an optimal configuration of the wireless network that best meets the collected information relating to the one or more KPIs. The method additionally includes assigning, by the wireless network controller, a role to each of one or more network devices associated with the 10 wireless network based on the optimal configuration of the wireless network. The role is selected from a gateway (GW), a mesh node, a cellular node and an end node (EN).