Energy Efficiency Architecture Design for Heterogeneous Cellular Networks

Abstract

Abstract Heterogeneous cellular networks (HetNets) have emerged as a new promising paradigm to further enhance capacity, where multiple types of low power smallcells are overlaid in a high power macrocell. They provide more opportunities to explore the potential cognition and cooperation diversities to improve the spectral efficiency. On the other hand, energy efficiency is a critical performance metric, which deserves more attention from academia, industry, and standardization, in particular, in scenarios where smallcells are densely deployed. In this paper, a systematic architecture is presented to efficiently utilize network resources and thus improve the overall energy efficiency. The architecture is referred to as OCRT because it combines a multi‐tier energy efficiency considerations of operators, core networks, radio access networks and terminals (e.g., OCRT). Furthermore, a corresponding triply‐cycle‐based functional structure is proposed for the OCRT to make various interactions between the corresponding functional entities clear. An implementation scheme of OCRT based on cognitive information interaction cycle and an energy efficiency‐aware protocol is presented. Finally, a use case of the presented OCRT green design is provided for energy efficiency optimization in a cognition‐and‐cooperation‐characterized HetNet. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.