Fundamentals of Energy-Efficient Wireless Links: Optimal Ratios and Scaling Behaviors

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the energy efficiency of multi-antenna base stations, providing closed-form solutions and algorithms for optimizing power, bandwidth, and antenna count to maximize efficiency.

Contribution

It introduces novel closed-form solutions and a joint optimization algorithm for energy efficiency in multi-antenna base stations, considering detailed power consumption models.

Findings

Optimal power-to-bandwidth and power-to-antenna ratios derived

A new relationship between radiated and passive power consumption identified

Guidelines for antenna count and power usage for maximum energy efficiency

Abstract

In this paper, we examine the energy efficiency (EE) of a base station (BS) with multiple antennas. We use a state-of-the-art power consumption model, taking into account the passive and active parts of the transceiver circuitry, including the effects of radiated power, signal processing, and passive consumption. The paper treats the transmit power, bandwidth, and number of antennas as the optimization variables. We provide novel closed-form solutions for the optimal ratios of power per unit bandwidth and power per transmit antenna. We present a novel algorithm that jointly optimizes these variables to achieve maximum EE, while fulfilling constraints on the variable ranges. We also discover a new relationship between the radiated power and the passive transceiver power consumption. We provide analytical insight into whether using maximum power or bandwidth is optimal and how many antennas a BS should utilize.