Green dynamic configuration in two-tier LTE femtocell networks

Many literatures have pointed out that most of the power consumption of all communication networks is mainly contributed from Base Stations (BSs) and such a situation is becoming worse as more BSs are deployed to cope with amazingly enormous data traffics. It is therefore crucial in the near future to reduce the power consumption of BSs for green information and communication technologies. 2-tier macrocell-femtocell networks should be the key network architecture to reduce the total power consumption of these BSs. Also, Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems are expected to improve the network capacity with full mobility. In this paper, we propose an efficient power-saving algorithm, called Green Dynamic Configuration Algorithm (GDCA) in such a network environment. GDCA is well capable of allowing grouped femtocell BSs to smartly activate/deactivate, respectively, based on dynamic traffic loads, to let the overall power consumption of BSs be minimized, while maintaining at a pre-determined data rate. Comprehensive simulations show that the GDCA algorithm can achieve much better power-saving performances when compared with conventional ones.