Reducing energy consumption by dynamic resource allocation in C-RAN

Abstract

Cloud Radio Access Network (C-RAN) architecture has been proposed as a promising solution to overcome the challenges of Next Generation (5G) cellular networks, in terms of efficiency, capacity, scalability, flexibility and sustainability in a cost-effective and power efficient way. However C-RAN demands a new energy consumption model and its resources optimised. This Paper presented the C-RAN to reduce the network cost further by dynamically allocating centralised Base Band Unit (BBU) resources to Remote Radio Heads (RRHs) depending on the traffic conditions. New energy consumption model for C-RAN has been proposed for capturing the energy consumption of centralised BBU resources which reflect the dynamic allocation of RRHs. An algorithm that optimises the BBU resource allocation has been proposed. BBUs are put to sleep and active states by switching them ‘OFF’ and ‘ON’ respectively according to their resource usage. Numerical results based on simulation settings validated the theoretical analyses and revealed more than 70% power reduction compared to conventional RAN under the EARTH power model.