Queue-Aware Small Cell Activation for Energy Efficiency in Two-tier Heterogeneous Networks

In heterogeneous networks (HetNets), the network energy efficiency is critically determined by the base station (BS) deployment density. In this paper, we consider a BS density optimization problem by turning on only a fraction of micro BSs according to an activation ratio to minimize the network average power consumption per area in a 2-tier HetNet. In contrast to previous studies where a BS is assumed to be transmitting packets all the time, such that the network power consumption monotonically increases as the BS density increases, we assume that each BS can be busy or idle depending on the dynamic packet arrivals. The network power consumption is thus closely related to the average traffic intensity of each tier. With the assumption of universal spectrum reuse, the average traffic intensity of each tier is found to be uniquely determined by a set of fixed-point equations, based on which the network average power consumption per area is characterized. Simulation results demonstrate that the network average power consumption per area can be minimized by properly tuning the activation ratio. It is further revealed that the optimal activation ratio increases as the mean packet arrival rate of each user increases.