Cooperative and cognitive paradigms for green hetnets [Guest Editorial]

The vision of wireless 2020 is to become a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy, and as part of these priorities the world have set forth the 20:20:20 targets where greenhouse gas emissions should be reduced by 20 percent, whilst energy from renewable source efficiency should be increased by that respective amount. In fact, in today s energy conscious society, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) account for 2 percent of global CO2 emissions. To place this in perspective, a medium sized cellular network uses as much as 170,000 homes. Therefore, new solutions are required whereby operators can accommodate this additional traffic volume whilst reducing their investments in new infrastructure and beyond that significantly reducing their energy bill.