Multi-Operator Collaboration for Green Cellular Networks under Roaming Price Consideration

This paper investigates the collaboration between multiple mobile operators to optimize the energy efficiency of cellular networks. Our framework studies the case of LTE-Advanced networks deployed in the same area and owning renewable energy generators. The objective is to reduce the CO₂ emissions of cellular networks via collaborative techniques and using base station sleeping strategy while respecting the network quality of service. Low complexity and practical algorithm is employed to achieve green goals during low traffic periods. Cooperation decision criteria are also established basing on derived roaming prices and profit gains of competitive mobile operators. Our numerical results show a significant save in terms of CO₂ compared to the non-collaboration case and that cooperative mobile operator exploiting renewables are more awarded than traditional operators.