A Pricing Based Algorithm for Cell Switching Off in Green Cellular Networks

In this study, we propose a pricing based algorithm that assigns user terminals (UTs) to base stations (BSs) and optimizes the transmission powers in a way that minimizes the energy expenditure. The algorithm takes into account the fixed energy expenditure that occurs even if a BS does not transmit to any UT, therefore the proposed algorithm switches off the unnecessary BSs in order to minimize the total energy expenditure. We compare this algorithm with two benchmarks. One of them is a simple algorithm that connects each UT to the BS with best channel conditions. Transmission powers are then optimized iteratively. The second benchmark is the optimal solution that is found using a branch and bound technique. The numerical evaluations reveal that the pricing based algorithm performs very close to the optimal.