Energy-saving coordinated napping (CoNap) for wireless networks

We propose a time-slot-based transmission strategy, referred to as coordinated napping (CoNap) for energy saving in cellular networks. In CoNap, multiple base stations (BSs) form a cluster and each BS operates in a transmit mode (TM) and a nap mode (NM) independently through an implicitly coordinated manner. The implicit coordination is implemented by the binary matrices to assign TM and NM to each BS in the cluster. CoNap can effectively reduce the network energy consumption and reduce the inter-cell interference, especially during the non-peak traffic load hours. Our numerical results based on a realistic energy consumption model in a cellular network show that as high as 50% saving can be achieved without compromising the quality of service to users.