A Survey of Energy-Efficient Techniques for 5G Networks and Challenges Ahead

TL;DR

This survey reviews energy-efficient techniques in 5G networks, highlighting recent advances, key challenges, and future research directions to address the growing energy demands of massive connectivity.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of current energy-efficient methods for 5G, including recent research contributions and future challenges.

Findings

Energy efficiency is crucial for 5G due to increased base stations and devices.

Recent techniques show promising improvements in energy consumption.

Identifies key challenges for future energy-efficient 5G network design.

Abstract

After about a decade of intense research, spurred by both economic and operational considerations, and by environmental concerns, energy efficiency has now become a key pillar in the design of communication networks. With the advent of the fifth generation of wireless networks, with millions more base stations and billions of connected devices, the need for energy-efficient system design and operation will be even more compelling. This survey provides an overview of energy-efficient wireless communications, reviews seminal and recent contribution to the state-of-the-art, including the papers published in this special issue, and discusses the most relevant research challenges to be addressed in the future.