Abstract
With global concern for climate change, and for cutting down the energy cost, especially in off grid areas, use of renewable energy has been gaining widespread attention in many areas including cellular communication. The base station (BS) has emerged as a strong candidate for the integration of renewable energy sources (RES), particularly solar and wind. The incorporation of renewable energy opens many possibilities for energy conservation through strategies such as energy cooperation between BSs during the off-peak hours, when the energy harvested from renewable energy sources may become surplus. In this paper, we present the case for cellular BSs enabled with renewable energy sources (RES) to have an arrangement in which the BS provide surplus energy to a neighboring BS, thus minimizing the use of conventional energy. A realistic objective is developed for northern region of Pakistan, which entails modeling of solar panels and wind-turbine according to the average solar irradiation and wind speed of the region. We also model the dynamic load of the BS, which depicts temporal fluctuations with traffic variations. Based on these models we initiate an energy cooperation scheme between the BS in which an energy cost minimization framework is mathematically modeled and solved through the interior point method algorithm. Results are obtained for different times of the year for different number of base stations showing respective energy cost savings. Keywords: Base station Cooperation; alternate energy; cellular networks
Highlights
The phenomenal growth of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has led to an increased energy consumption and resultant greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions
The energy demand and generation graphs as well as the results of energy cooperation are described in the proceeding paragraphs
The harvested energy, becomes surplus during off-peak hours, which can be shared through energy cooperation strategy, as demonstrated in this paper
Summary
The phenomenal growth of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has led to an increased energy consumption and resultant greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions. It is estimated that the global contribution of ICT industry towards CO2 emissions is approximately five percent but expected to grow as global demand for broadband services and computers rises. A base station is the most energy consuming element in a cellular network and consumes up to 60% of the network’s energy [1,2]. The global number of base stations (BSs) is expected to increase from present (2014) figure of 7.6 million to 11.2 million by year 2020 [1]. In consequence the annual power consumption of cellular BSs will grow from 84 TWh to 98 TWh by 2020, with business as usual estimates
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