Energy-efficient planning and management of cellular networks

Abstract

We study base stations energy-efficient management algorithms in a cellular access network taking into account different planning strategies. To provide energy savings, sleep modes are adopted at the Base Stations (BSs). We propose two switch-off strategies that are based either on the cell load or the BS coverage overlap. Our results show that energy savings between 10% and 30% can be achieved also for the deployment already planned to be energy-efficient, while even higher savings are achievable with the other deployments. Moreover, we find that both the proposed switch-off strategies obtain similar results, suggesting that the order at which the BSs are switched-off, and the set of BSs selected to be switched off, do not change significantly the average estimation of potential energy savings. Furthermore, on a realistic case study, comparisons are made between the results obtained by using deterministic channel estimation models and empirical formulations. © 2012 IEEE.