EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

An Energy-Efficient Coverage Algorithm for Macrocell—Small Cell Network Systems

Yao-Liang Chung
Additional contact information
Yao-Liang Chung: Department of Communications, Navigation and Control Engineering, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung City 20224, Taiwan

Energies, 2017, vol. 10, issue 9, 1-23

Abstract: The energy efficiency of a macrocell base station (MBS) can be substantially improved via the deployment of small cell base stations (SBSs) within the coverage area of the MBS. Moreover, this approach is expected to remain a key feature of communication network markets in the future. However, little research has been conducted to uncover effective solutions to the issue of coverage holes (i.e., specific locations or areas in which a user is not able to get an adequate signal from the wireless network) that may occur in the context of such a network architecture. To address this dearth of relevant research, the present study proposes an energy-efficient coverage algorithm utilizing novel system configurations, for use in such macrocell—small cell network systems. The goal of the proposed algorithm is providing the maximum possible reduction of the combined power consumed by the transceivers of all the BSs (that is, the SBSs and the MBS), while simultaneously guaranteeing the provision of comprehensive wireless signal coverage to users under various scenarios. In order to accomplish this aim in an efficient manner, the algorithm smartly adjusts the power levels of all the SBSs in a given system, including the full deactivation of a previously active SBS, or the activation of a previously inactive SBS, according to the dynamics of the given network traffic, thereby modifying their power consumption as necessary. The results for simulations of various test scenarios indicated that the algorithm exhibits better performance than two conventional methods in terms of its overall effects on coverage, power usage, and average transmission rate. The simulated power savings yielded by the proposed algorithm were particularly notable, as it garnered an improvement as high as 78% under the condition of light traffic volumes.

Keywords: efficiency; energy saving; coverage holes; small cells; next-generation cellular systems (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/10/9/1319/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/10/9/1319/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:10:y:2017:i:9:p:1319-:d:110595

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-24
Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:10:y:2017:i:9:p:1319-:d:110595