Cost-Aware Green Cellular Networks with Energy and Communication Cooperation

TL;DR

This paper explores cost-efficient green cellular networks by leveraging renewable energy, energy and communication cooperation among base stations, and smart grid integration to reduce operational expenses.

Contribution

It introduces three novel approaches—energy cooperation, communication cooperation, and joint energy-communication cooperation—for optimizing energy use and reducing costs in cellular networks.

Findings

Energy cooperation reduces operational costs significantly.

Communication sharing improves network efficiency.

Joint strategies outperform individual approaches.

Abstract

Energy cost of cellular networks is ever-increasing to match the surge of wireless data traffic, and the saving of this cost is important to reduce the operational expenditure (OPEX) of wireless operators in future. The recent advancements of renewable energy integration and two-way energy flow in smart grid provide potential new solutions to save the cost. However, they also impose challenges, especially on how to use the stochastically and spatially distributed renewable energy harvested at cellular base stations (BSs) to reliably supply time- and space-varying wireless traffic over cellular networks. To overcome these challenges, in this article we present three approaches, namely, {\emph{energy cooperation, communication cooperation, and joint energy and communication cooperation}}, in which different BSs bidirectionally trade or share energy via the aggregator in smart grid, and/or share wireless resources and shift loads with each other to reduce the total energy cost.