Green antenna switching to improve energy saving in LTE networks

This paper proposes a clever strategy for transmission antennas switching in LTE cellular networks considering different traffic load conditions and service classes. The designed algorithm called GAS (Green Antenna Switching), aims to be aware of the intensity and traffic typology handled by each base station in order to discover the suitable working conditions to turn off one of the MIMO antennas and the corresponding power amplifiers, without introducing excessive performance degradation. The results, obtained throughout the integration of the GAS algorithm into a specific LTE system level simulator, demonstrate the goodness of the proposed solution that guarantees an overall energy saving amount between 14% and 16% (depending on different day times) compared to the classical approach consisting in keeping always-on the MIMO antennas system.