Joint successive base station switch off and user subcarrier allocation optimization for green multicarrier based cellular networks

In recent years, energy consumption in cellular networks has dramatically increased. That is mainly due to the increase of network users and accordingly base stations (BSs). In this paper we focus on the main component of wireless infrastructure, which is the BS, and the major energy consumers in the cellular network. We propose a novel approach using Teaching-learning based optimization (TLBO) for the energy-aware management of radio access networks and determine the optimum operational mode of each BS with respect to energy efficiency. The proposed algorithm reduces the number of active BSs when they are underutilized. When some BSs are switched off, radio coverage and services are taken care of by the cells that remain active, to ensure user coverage. We demonstrate via analysis and simulations that significant reduction in energy consumption is achieved by dynamically switching off some BSs, While maintaining the Quality of Service (QoS) for all users.