An energy-efficiency aware sleeping strategy for dense multi-tier HetNets

With the rapid development of mobile communication, data traffic is exploding. To meet the ever-increasing traffic challenge, Heterogeneous Networks (HetNets) gain extensive attention. Hyper-dense HetNets consisting of large number and high density multi-tier small cells are regarded as a key part of the future networks. However, large-scale and dense deployment of small cells can also bring about huge energy consumption and increase the operating cost to an unendurable price. In this paper, we take (i) the overlapping situation between small cells, (ii) the different power consumption profiles for multi-type small cells, (iii) the load condition of small cells into consideration, propose an energy-efficiency aware (EEA) sleeping strategy to improve the system power saving performance. The strategy introduces the energy-efficiency self-evaluation mechanism to the small cells, screens out the energy-inefficient small cells and switches them off. The simulation results show that EEA can achieve a substantial power saving performance compared to existing strategies.