Green Cellular Networks: A Survey, Some Research Issues and Challenges

TLDR

Energy efficiency is a growing concern for cellular operators and standardization bodies, prompting continuous exploration of future technologies to improve network infrastructure. This article surveys power‑saving methods, identifies research issues and challenges, and proposes techniques—including cognitive radio and cooperative relaying—to enable green cellular networks. The authors review energy‑saving techniques for base stations, examine heterogeneous deployments with micro, pico, and femtocells, and outline future directions such as cognitive radio, cooperative relaying, and broader green network perspectives.

Abstract

Energy efficiency in cellular networks is a growing concern for cellular operators to not only maintain profitability, but also to reduce the overall environment effects. This emerging trend of achieving energy efficiency in cellular networks is motivating the standardization authorities and network operators to continuously explore future technologies in order to bring improvements in the entire network infrastructure. In this article, we present a brief survey of methods to improve the power efficiency of cellular networks, explore some research issues and challenges and suggest some techniques to enable an energy efficient or "green" cellular network. Since base stations consume a maximum portion of the total energy used in a cellular system, we will first provide a comprehensive survey on techniques to obtain energy savings in base stations. Next, we discuss how heterogenous network deployment based on micro, pico and femtocells can be used to achieve this goal. Since cognitive radio and cooperative relaying are undisputed future technologies in this regard, we propose a research vision to make these technologies more energy efficient. Lastly, we explore some broader perspectives in realizing a "green" cellular network technology.