An E3F based assessment of energy efficiency of relay nodes in LTE-advanced networks

This document analyses the energy efficiency of two possible schemes that have been discussed as a possible way to deploy a relay enhanced network. In the first part the main results obtained in a previous work [1] are summarized, showing the energy efficiency of a relay enhanced network obtained considering small scale simulations, in a full load scenario and measuring only the radiated power. These results provided a first indication of the potentiality of relay nodes as a tool to reduce energy consumption. In the second part a deeper analysis is provided, showing how the energy efficiency of the network can be obtained also considering the whole power consumed by all the components of the transmitting nodes, and considering scenarios where the network is not fully loaded. This kind of result has been used as input to the E³F framework proposed by the EARTH project, that allows to take into account long-term traffic variations and the mix of deployments that are typical of a modern telecommunication network, providing in that way a global assessment of energy efficiency in relay enhanced network.