A game theoretical approach for cooperative environmentally friendly cellular networks powered by the smart grid

This paper investigates the collaboration between multiple mobile operators to optimize the energy efficiency of cellular networks, maximize their profits or achieve or tradeoff between both objectives. Mobile operators cooperate together by eliminating redundant base stations (BSs) using a low complexity algorithm that aims to maximize their objective functions subject to a quality of service constraint. The problem is modeled as a two-level Stackelberg game: a mobile operator level and a smart grid level. Indeed, in our framework, we assume that cellular networks are powered by multiple energy providers existing in the smart grid characterized by different pollutant levels in addition to renewable energy source deployed in BS sites. The objective is to find the best active BS combination and the optimal procurement decision needed to the network operation during collaboration by considering electricity real-time pricing. Our study includes the daily traffic variation in addition to the daily green energy availability. Our simulation results show a significant saving in terms of CO₂ emissions compared to the non-collaboration case and that cooperative mobile operators exploiting renewables are more awarded than traditional operators.