Database-aided energy savings in next generation dual connectivity heterogeneous networks

This paper studies potential energy savings that can be realized in dual connectivity heterogeneous networks (HetNets) with densely deployed small cells. Using the Phantom Cell Concept (PCC) as a reference architecture, a novel database-aided mechanism is introduced to provide macro cell-controlled sleep mode functionality to small cells. System level simulations show that a system with this capability can yield energy savings of up to 40% and throughput gains of about 25% in dense deployment scenarios compared to a system where no energy savings scheme is implemented.