Joint resource blocks switching off and bandwidth expansion for energy saving in LTE networks

Abstract

In the wireless networks community, Long Term Evolution (LTE) facilitates users with high data rate at the cost of increased energy consumption. The base station (BS) also known as eNodeBs are the main energy hungry elements in LTE networks. Power is consumed by different components of BS such as Baseband Unit (BB), Power Amplifier (PA) and other cooling systems. Since power consumption directly affects the Operational Expenditure (OPEX), thus the provision of cost effective services with adequate quality of service (QoS) has become a major challenge. Moreover, the energy consumed by Information and Communication Technology (ICT) appliances contributes 2% to global warming (CO2 emission), which is another significant problem. This paper presents a joint resource blocks switching off and bandwidth expansion energy saving scheme for LTE networks. Performance analysis of the proposed scheme has revealed that it is around 29% energy efficient as compared to the benchmark LTE systems.