An Energy Efficient Mechanism for Downlink and Uplink Decoupling in 5G Networks

In current cellular networks, cell association is heavily based on the Downlink signal power and all devices are associated with the same Base Station in Downlink and Uplink. While as of now this technique has been proved adequate in homogeneous networks where all BSs have similar transmission levels, in increasingly dense heterogeneous networks rate is heavily dependent on the load, which can significantly vary from Base Station to Base Station. Due to increased demands for usage over several devices in heterogenous networks, large disparities in the Downlink pose a threat to the quality of services rendered by the network and this technique seems obsolete. Uplink and Downlink decoupling is the proposed solution, where the Downlink cell association is not necessarily based on the same criteria as Uplink. We propose using SINR and Path Loss with Range Extension as factors for choosing the appropriate Base Station for connection in Downlink and Uplink respectively, taking into consideration the Base Stations' Resource Block availability, to avoid overloading Base Stations and we will use simulations to test our theory.