Beyond Cellular Green Generation: Potential and Challenges of the Network Separation

This article introduces the ideas investigated in the BCG2 project of the GreenTouch consortium. The basic concept is to separate signaling and data in the wireless access network. Transmitting the signaling information separately maintains coverage even when the whole data network is adapted to the current load situation. Such network-wide adaptation can power down base stations when no data transmission is needed and, thus, promises a tremendous increase in energy efficiency. We highlight the advantages of the separation approach and discuss technical challenges opening new research directions. Moreover, we propose two analytical models to assess the potential energy efficiency improvement of the BCG2 approach.