J SURYA TEJA Modern Communication Technologies 2014AAPS024H

Power Optimization in 5G Networks

ABSTRACT Energy efficiency has become a matter of prime importance in wireless

networks with the increase in demand for capacity, improved data rate and a better quality of
service for the next-generation networks. This leads to the need to adopt energy efficient
architectures. Meanwhile it is our social responsibility to reduce the carbon foot print by
reducing the power consumed in the wireless networks. The urgency for the development of
green communication thus takes place. The primary focus of the following article is the use of
relays and small cells to improve the energy efficiency of the network.

INTRODUCTION developing holistic approaches, cell

The energy consumption is growing at a
very fast rate with the rapid growth and
evolution of information and
communication technology. Thus there is
an urgent need to shift from pursuing high
capacity and spectral efficiency to energy
efficient designs. The huge data
requirements, increasing price of energy,
impact of carbon, and fight against climate
change (Correia, 2010) are some of the
factors that are of concern for the energy
efficiency in the telecommunication
community. The need for green techniques
resulted in development of energy saving
methods such as green radio project (Han,
2011), the EARTH project and more. Focus
on relaying techniques between the Base
station and the mobile stations as a means
to reduce the power consumption are also
under research.
The energy efficiency is the need of the
hour from the users perspective as well.
The battery capacity is increasing 1.5x per
decade and has always been a concern for
the user. Efficiency in wireless
communications is imperative to satisfy the
users demand of battery life. The next
generation architectures are focusing on
deployment strategies and resource
allocation policies to improve the energy
efficiency.
EVOLUTION OF WIRELESS
COMMUNICATION
The development of communication
devices using electricity were the invention
of telegraph by S. Moore in 1838, telephone
by A. G. Bell in 1876, wireless telegraphy
in the meantime. The timeline continued
with electron tube amplifier by de Forest in
1915, replaced by a low-power transistor.
FIRST GENERATION (1G)
Analog cellular systems, referred as to the
first generation (1G) appeared in early
1980s. It had a slow data rate of 2.4 Kbps
but had many disadvantages. Since, it was
the first system to be designed, major
concern was ensuring wireless connectivity
and coverage rather than to power
optimization.

Power Optimization in 5G Networks

J SURYA TEJA Modern Communication Technologies
SECOND GENERATION (2G)
The 2G systems were mainly designed for
voice along with power control approaches
that provided a fixed data rate of about
64Kbps maintaining certain Quality of
Service. Short Message Service and email
were also provided in 2G. The 2G mobile
handsets had longer battery life because of
low power radio signals.
2.5G then took advent with packet
switching along with circuit switching,
providing data rate up-to 144Kbps. The
main technologies were General Packet
Radio Service, Enhanced rate for GSM
evolution and CDMA (Y. Yang, 2009), and
with power levels same as 2G.
THIRD GENERATION (3G)
With the advent of 3G, transmission rate of
2Mbps with improvement in QoS was
achieved. 3G used Universal Mobile
Communications System which is a
successor to GSM and standardized by the
3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP)
(Goldsmith, 2009). Other services provided
by 3G include global roaming and
improved voice quality. The drawback of
3G was requiring more power than 2G.
FOURTH GENERATION (4G)
4G is generally referred to as the
descendent of the 2G and 3G standards.
Services such as voice, data and multimedia
are provided with high data rates as
compared to the earlier generations. The
concept of multi hop in-band and out-band
relays have been introduced helping to
increase the coverage area as well as
making the network energy efficient (S. W.
Power Optimization in 5G Networks
2014AAPS024H
Peters, 2009). The main disadvantage of 4G
systems is the use of cell-specific reference
signals which decrease energy efficiency of
the network by causing excessive overload.
FIFTH GENERATION (5G)
The 5G network is yet to replace the 4G to
meet the increasing demand for high data
rates. Green communication will play a
major role in meeting the demand of
subscribers. 5G includes techniques such as
Massive MIMO, Beam Division Multiple
Access, D2D communication and multiple
radio access technologies.
The power requirement of the network
increases with the frequency. To maximize
the efficiency of the upcoming systems, the
scheduling of time and frequency resources
need to be co-ordinated with the power
optimization techniques.
RESEARCH TRENDS
From time to time, sleeping time of the base
station, cell size, adaptive load variation
algorithms, relay and co-operative
communications, resource allocation
techniques and various radio access
technologies have helped in making
wireless communications energy efficient.
Using pico-cells and femtocells decrease
path loss and improve energy efficiency of
the network. Relay and co-operative gain
communications have gained much
attention for reducing the power
consumption.
Adaptive MIMO mode switching based on
transmission distance, rate as well as
channel state information is being used to
improve energy efficiency. Resource
J SURYA TEJA Modern Communication Technologies
allocation, heterogeneous network
deployment, transition scheme
optimization and developing energy
efficient algorithms have gained much
attention.
ENERGY EFFICIENCY METRIC
The energy consumption is growing at a
faster rate with the deployment of 4G
technology. The base station consumes a
large part of the energy generating a large
amount of electricity bill. Not only from the
operators point of view, but also from the
consumers point of view, obtaining energy
efficiency has significant economic
benefits. Thus there is an urgent need to
purse energy efficiency along with optimal
capacity and spectral efficiency when
designing a wireless network.
At the users end the energy consumption
must be minimized as the devices are
battery powered. Thus the cellular systems
must be energy efficient, especially with the
growing demand in mobile multimedia
communication which has made the battery
constraint a major issue. This has motivated
optimization of energy for the use of mobile
devices.
The major concern is to improve the Energy
Efficiency without compromising on the
user experience. Deciding the adequate
energy efficiency metric is of prime
importance before analysing a power
optimized network. Energy Efficiency
conventionally is defined as the number of
bits transmitted per joule of energy
consumed (G.Wu, 2015). This can be
defined as the system throughput for unit
energy consumed. But all the data
transmitted is not the real information and
Power Optimization in 5G Networks
2014AAPS024H
should not be included in the throughput.
Network EE: It is defined as the
quantity of information bits
transmitted to or received from users
per unit of energy consumption.
Device EE: It is defined as the
quantity of information bits per unit
of energy consumption of the
communication module in bits/joule.
The energy consumed at the base station is
both static and dynamic. For a macro-cell
base station the static power dominates,
whereas the dynamic part dominates for the
micro-cell base station. Traditional power
optimization techniques consider only
transmit power but it only makes sense if
transmit power has much larger proportion
in total power consumption, possible for
only longer transmission distances (S. Cui,
2004)or high data rate applications (H.
Kim, 2009). Hence a good EE metric must
consider circuit as well as transmission
power and saving in one of them must not
be counteracted by increase in another for
obtaining an energy efficient network.
Various definitions of Energy Efficiency
are in picture depending on the area of
application.
Information Theory: EE is
minimizing the energy consumed
per bit.
Sensor Networks: EE is prolonging
the network lifetime.
Cellular Networks: EE is
prolonging the standby time of MS
and maximizing EE under QoS
constraint.
Here, we concentrate on EE improvement
in cellular networks and various techniques
will be discussed.
J SURYA TEJA Modern Communication Technologies
ENERGY EFFICIENT
TECHNIQUES
To make the network energy efficient, we
have various ways like forming energy
efficient architectures or using energy
efficient radio technologies or obtaining
efficiency in resource management. We
concentrate our attention on power
optimization using relays and their
integration with 5G networks.
SIMULTANEOUS INFORMATION AND
POWER TRANSFER (SWIPT)
Due to greater demand in energy efficiency
in wireless communications, there is a lot of
interest in integrating energy harvesting
technologies in wireless communication
system. The most upcoming technology is
WPT where nodes charge their batteries
from electromagnetic radiation. Strong
signals increase the power transfer but
increase the amount of interference. The
future networks should overcome this path
loss with the use of MIMO, small cells and
millimetre waves. The element used for this
purpose is a Rectenna which converts
microwave energy to direct current. This is
achieved by splitting of signals into two
orthogonal signals. SWIPT can be used in
three scenarios.
Near field scenario: Power is
transferred using inductor or
capacitor coupling and up-to tenths of
watt can be transmitted within a range
of 1m.
Far field scenario: Power is
transferred using directive power
beaming with directive antennas up-
to mW and range of several metres.
Far field low power scenario: Power
is transferred with RF power
Power Optimization in 5G Networks
2014AAPS024H
scavenging up-to micro watts with
range of several Km.
We now concentrate on the far field
scenario. For this the power signal received
is split into two signals, one for energy
harvesting and the other is used for
information decoding. Several methods are
used to achieve this.
1. Time Switching: This is not a
simultaneous processing technique as
in one slot RF signal is used either for
information or for power transfer. It
requires time synchronization.
2. Power Splitting: In this RF signal is
separated into two streams of
different power levels using a power
splitter. It is more complex and is
used for critical information transfer.
3. Antenna Switching: In this technique
an antenna element is switched for
both decoding and rectifying. This
can be used in MIMO systems. It uses
some antennas with strongest channel
paths for energy and rest for
information.
4. Spatial Switching: This technique
exploits multiple degrees of freedom
of interference channel. The MIMO
channel is transformed into parallel
Eigen value channels that can either
be used for power or information
transfer.
In 5G networks, with the coming of
Massive MIMO technology more and more
stray RF signals will be available which can
be harnessed at the relays to harvest power.
So, 5G networks are expected to contain
Femtocells. The only concern in this regard
will be keeping the emissions below the set
standards.
J SURYA TEJA Modern Communication Technologies
MILLIMETER WAVES
Millimeter waves are expected to ne one of
the most promising technology of 5G. It is
expected to solve the problem of bandwidth
allocation for faster delivery of high quality
video and multimedia content. To
overcome the congestion in 5G, the
wireless signals are moved to the higher
frequency band operating at millimetre
wavelength between 30 and 300 GHz on the
radio spectrum. Due to this shift there will
be high data loss and signal attenuation
leading to limited communication range.
Appropriate signal processing techniques
such as adaptive beamforming will enable
the transmitting node to direct the signal
towards the desired receiver. Hence,
steerable array antennas will be used in
millimetre range spectrum to obtain high
data rate and capacity.
Using beamforming by focusing the
radiation pattern increases the range of
communication and is expected to have low
power consumption (L. Chen, 2014). The
use if antenna array with directional
transmission between the base station and
mobile reduces the signal interference and
this accounts for reduction in energy.
MASSIVE MIMO
MIMO technology provided increased
network capacity in 4G systems. By
sending the same signal through different
paths between the transmitter and the
receiver (diversity gain) as well as
multiplexing the gain by transmitting
independent signals in parallel through
spatial channels is achieved. Both helping
in reducing the energy efficiency. As
Power Optimization in 5G Networks
2014AAPS024H
MIMO consumes more circuit power due to
more number of antennas it is beneficial for
longer transmission distances. For adaptive
multi-antenna transmission, two additional
signals have been specified in LTE-A.
Channel state information
reference signal: It is cell specific
and used for estimation of channel
quality similar to CRS only with
lesser overhead as it is transmitted
with much lower frequency.
UE-specific demodulation
reference signal: It is used for
demodulating data at specific UE
and is pre-coded similar to data
where non-codebook-based
precoding is applied.
These reference signals are considered to be
one of the main reason for the decrease in
energy efficiency of the 4G network owing
to large amount of overhead in multi
antenna transmission systems. In 5G
networks a variant of MIMO is proposed
with large number of antennas employed at
the base station called Massive MIMO.
This technology achieves communication
with multiple users simultaneously in the
same frequency band and hence providing
high multiplexing as well as array gain at
the same time. It is obvious that with large
number of antennas in Massive MIMO
which consume high circuit power and
hence reduction in energy efficiency.
Switching off some of the base station
antennas is suggested to improve the EE of
the system. Adding more hardware as well,
power consumption can also be
considerably reduced with decrease in
dynamic power, thus less propagation
losses and improved EE.
J SURYA TEJA Modern Communication Technologies
RELAYS
In a wireless system the relay can be
considered as an agent of the base station
outside its cells coverage area. They help
the mobile terminals in forwarding the
information when neither the source nor the
destination is involved. Though it was
introduced to increase the coverage area,
later it was realized that relaying can be
applied to not only increase the area but also
to increase the throughput, system capacity
along with a decrease in transmission
power (M. H. Islam, 2012).
The basic principle used in relaying is that
the mobile station can receive signal from
both the base station and the relay node
depending on the signal strength which in
turn depend on the distance from them. This
method of relaying splits longer paths into
shorter ones with Line of Sight
communication and thus reducing the total
path loss. Thus low power is required to
transmit the signal and also the interference
is also reduced.
Three main relaying schemes are in
practice.
Decode and Forward: In this relaying
scheme, the relay decodes the source
message in one block and transmits
the re-encoded message in the
following block instead of
forwarding individual packets. This
leads to fewer transmissions hence
decreasing the energy consumption.
(Tarokh, 2009)
Amplify and Forward: In this
relaying scheme the relay sends an
amplified version of the received
signal in the last time-slot.
Compress and Forward: In this
Power Optimization in 5G Networks
2014AAPS024H
relaying scheme, the relay quantizes
the received signal in one block and
transmits the encoded version of the
quantized received signal in the
following block.
Amplify and Forward requires lesser delay
as the node operates time-slot by time-slot.
Also it requires much computing power as
no decoding or quantizing operation is
performed at the relay side.
In the 3GPP long term evolution-advanced
relay standards have been detailed
including in-band and out-band relaying as
well as transparent and non-transparent
connectivity of relay with users. But
various issues like deployment of full
duplex relays, D2D relying, connectivity
with mobile relays are left for
implementation in in the next generation
networks. The next generation networks are
expected to support various devices along
with different applications.
A reduced channel estimation
overhead policy is provided for high
mobility scenarios.
A delay minimization policy is given
for delay critical applications.
A low power consumption policy for
power-efficient communications.
MATHEMATICAL MODEL
Let us consider a mathematical model
consisting of half duplex relay with AWGN
channel and let a, denote the first time slot.
The model is shown in the figure. The
source which can be either at the base
station or a mobile node sends a signal xs[a].
The received signal at the relay yr[a] and the
destination yd[a] are given as
yr[a] = Psgs,rxs[a] + zr[a]
J SURYA TEJA Modern Communication Technologies 2014AAPS024H

yd[a] = Psgs,dxs[a] + zd[a] y = h1ys,d + h2yr,d

In the second time slot (a+1) the source Where
keeps silent and the relay transmits the
h1 = Psg*s,d/No and,
signal xr[a+1] to the destination yd[a+1]. In
the above equations, gi,j is the channel
coefficient between the transmitter and the
, ,
receiver and zj is the noise at the receiver |, |2 +
2 =
with variance No, where I {s,r} and j {r,d}. Pr|, | 2
(1 + )
Ps represents the source transmission |, |2 +
power. For DF relay the retransmitted
signals from the relay can be represented as
With the threshold SNR, the instantaneous
yr[a+1] = xs[a] SNR from source S to relay selected for
For AF relay the transmitted signal can be reception Ri for in-band and out-band are
represented as respectively given by

yr[a+1] = beta yr[a]

= >
+
Here beta is the signal gain from the relay
station and is given by And,

Pr = >
=
Ps|gs,r|2+No
Here, gxy represents the channel coefficient
Where Pr is the relay transmission power.
between the transmitter x and the receiver y
The signal to noise ratio for source to relay,
and the noise at the receiver has the
source to destination and destination to
variance No. Ps represents the power of the
relay are as follows:-
source and PRj represents the power of the
SNRs,r = Ps|gs,r|2/No relay where R is the relay selected for
SNRs,d = Ps|gs,d|2/No transmission. For full duplex mode i=j.

SNRr,d = Pr|gr,d|2/No The instantaneous signal to noise ratio from

relay selected for transmission Rj to the
The received signal at the destination from destination D considering no interference
relay can be expressed as from the source is given by
Pr
yr,d = gr,dyr + zr,d
Ps|gs,r|2+No

=
Pr
yr,d = Ps gr,dgs,rxs +
Ps|gs,r|2+No
zr,d
Power is adjusted to fulfil the SNR
At the destination, there are two signals, threshold for a particular application. The
one received from the source and the other power levels are defined as
from the relay. The final signal received is
found using Maximal Ration Combiner and
is given as

Power Optimization in 5G Networks

J SURYA TEJA Modern Communication Technologies 2014AAPS024H

0 of SWIPT, Massive MIMO, cloud RAN for

=
improving the EE in the next generation
network.
In case of reception with the interference at The next generation networks are expected
the relay the source power is given by to have the BS radius about 500m and small
( + ) cell radius of 40m. Firstly, the BS
=
communicates directly with the MS, which
are in its coverage area and are located
For full duplex transmission, single best
outdoors and hence suffer with low path
relay selection is given by
loss due to good channel conditions. For
R = arg min(P*S + P*Rj) MS which suffer higher path loss and hence
In case of reception without interference at require more power of the BS, we use
relay, the power from the source and max- relays, This brings us to the second scenario
link relay selection is respectively given by in which the base station communicates
with a mobile station through a relay and

hence consuming lesser power. These
= scenarios already exist, but in our

architecture, they are used only when the
And user is located outdoors. The indoor users
R = arg min min{P*S,P*Rj} do not directly communicate with the base
station. Instead they directly communicate
This helps in choosing the best possible
with the base station. Instead they directly
relay for minimum power usage. In present
communicate with the small cell access
and future networks, relays are expected to
point located in each building which in turn
act as both a source of information as well
communicates with the base station.
as a relay which is different from
Another scenario is when the base station
traditionally used pure relay systems. So,
communicates with the relay which then
presently the focus is on exploiting channel
sends the data to the specific Small Cell
state information, using relay selection
Access point of the building where MS is
schemes, relay enhances architectures to
located indoors. These are four scenarios
save power and make the network energy
which will be present in the 5G network. To
efficient.
enhance the energy efficiency of the
system, use of relays along with small cells
ENERGY EFFICIENT is indispensable. So relay selection will
have a major role in next generation
ARCHITECTURES
networks to deliver the best possible quality
The 5G networks as already discussed need of service as well as improve the energy
an urgent improvement in the energy efficiency of the network.
efficiency, achieved through integrating
conventionally known techniques of power
optimization using relays in the network.
This architecture also includes the concepts

Power Optimization in 5G Networks

J SURYA TEJA Modern Communication Technologies 2014AAPS024H

GREEN COMMUNICATION and coverage issues between neighbouring

small cells and its impact on EE needs to be
The increase in power consumption by
further estimated. The QoS requirement of
information and communication
a particular application and time varying
technologies has encouraged researchers to
channel condition and its relation with EE
investigate various approaches for reducing
needs to be developed. The trade-off
the power consumption. The power
between spectral and energy efficiency for
consumption of a network can be
heterogeneous networks needs further
considered from two perspectives: power
investigation. The trade-off between power
consumed by the base station and the power
consumed by hardware and power saved by
consumed by the mobile station. The
using MIMO with beamforming in mm
power consumed by a base station forms a
range also needs to be studied along with
great part of the power consumption in the
overall energy efficiency of the network.
entire network. The use phase of its cycle is
mainly responsible for increasing the
carbon emissions. To reduce the power CONCLUSION
consumption by the mobile phone the
approach of discontinuous reception can be Throughout this article we have discussed
used both in idle and connected mode (C. about the energy needs of 5G technology
Zhong, 2011). Mobile phone in DRX mode and different alternatives to reduce the
in idle state doesnt use any radio resources power consumption and improve the energy
hence saving power. However, cDRX efficiency. The importance of choosing the
wakes up and shuts down the receiver unit appropriate EE metric has also been
in a cyclic manner to save energy. discussed. An energy efficient architecture
has been proposed using relays along with
small cells in mm range wavelength.
FUTURE RESEARCH Concerns of the society on environment and
CHALLENGES the impact of the emissions from
information and communication
The next generation networks are expected
technology has been discussed and
to meet the needs of consumers along with
presented superficially. Various challenges
providing a solution for green
for future research on improving energy
communication. Use of new techniques
efficiency has also been discussed.
such as SWIPT, massive MIMO, mm wave
as well as continued use of small cells and
relays in the next generation networks will
impose new research challenges.
SWIPT is a promising technology but has
unsatisfactory results for long distances due
to high path loss. Spatial diversity can be
used to overcome this path loss. Energy
efficient resource management helps in
saving huge amount of power. The handoff

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Power Optimization in 5G Networks