Analysis and performance evaluation of the DRX mechanism for power saving in LTE

This paper presents an analytical model of the DRX mechanism in 3GPP LTE. A known method based on a semi-Markov process is used to model the LTE DRX but new simple and exact formulae relevant to the evaluation of the power saving efficiency are developed. The performance of the DRX mechanism with bursty packet data traffic and especially the effects of different DRX parameters on the power saving and wake-up delay are investigated. We propose some guidelines for optimal configuration of the DRX mechanism by adjusting more than one DRX parameter simultaneously. The suggested methods and algorithms are illustrated with numerical examples and conclusions are drawn.