Reducing Power Consumption in C-RAN Using Switch On/Off of MC-RRH Sectors and Small Cells

The evolution toward 5G wireless networks was the result of an exponential growth in data traffic demands and a significant increase in the number of connected devices with stringent quality of services (QoS) requirements. This evolution leads to an increase in the total power consumption and indirectly produces pollution intensive carbon footprints. To overcome 5G challenges in traffic demands and power consumption, Cloud Radio Access Network (C-RAN) architecture is introduced. This paper investigates the energy consumption in 5G C-RAN using switch on/off cell sectors and densification by exploiting Small Cell Remote Radio Heads (SC-RRHs). We develop sector switch on/off algorithms based on reducing the number of underutilized sectors per Macro Cell RRH (MC-RRH). Then, we apply a selective SC-RRHs distribution allowing SC-RRHs to serve users of switched off sectors. Simulations results show that our proposed approaches based on the switch on/off by sector can achieve more than 55% of power saving which makes them more efficient than those based on the switch on/off by cell in terms of power saving.