Reducing the energy consumption in wireless networks has become a significant problem, not only because of its great impact on the global energy crisis, but also because it represents a noteworthy cost for telecommunication operators. The Base Stations (BSs), constituting the main component of wireless infrastructure, are intended to serve their customers during peak time periods. On the other hand, they are more than sufficient when the traffic load is low. Our paper proposes a solution for the problem of inefficient use by using a dynamic BSs switch on/off algorithm. We demonstrate via analysis and simulations that we can achieve significant reduction in energy consumption when we dynamically switch off the unnecessary BSs depending on the traffic variations and the distance between the User Equipments (UEs) and their associated BS. While maintaining the Quality of Service (QoS), we calculate the maximum number of BSs that can be switched off considering the time varying characteristic of the traffic pattern.

Peer Reviewed