Integrating cross-layer LTE resources and energy management for increased powering of base stations from renewable energy

This paper studies a cross-layer technique to increase the powering of an LTE macro base station from renewable energy. The cross-layer technique integrates the management of the transmit antennas and LTE frames with, at the application layer, video compression factor and data traffic delay. Importantly, the management of these cellular network components is integrated with the base station energy system by adapting the transmission of the cellular network based on the projected renewable energy availability. The overall system presents a tradeoff between increased use of renewable energy and an increase in video distortion and data delay up to predefined limits. Simulation results show that the studied technique effectively increases the percentage of time that an LTE base station is able to operate powered only from renewable energy (up to 98.5%) while at the same time increasing within small, acceptable levels, video distortion and data delay a third of the time.