TANGO: traffic-aware network planning and green operation

This article addresses the potential paradigm shift of the next-generation cellular networks from the viewpoint of energy efficiency. In particular, it reveals that networks planning and operation should be more energy efficiency oriented; and in the meantime, the radio resources distributed over different cellular networks, and base stations should be optimized in a global way to be globally resource-optimized and energy-efficient networks (GREEN). A new framework, called traffic-aware network planning and green operation (TANGO), is proposed toward GREEN. Some key technologies for the migration to TANGO are then presented and evaluated. Theoretical modeling and simulation studies show that TANGO schemes can greatly improve the energy efficiency of cellular networks, while keeping QoS at a satisfactory level.