An overview and classification of research approaches in green wireless networks

TLDR

Energy consumption in wireless networks has become a critical research focus, prompting numerous studies and collaborative projects on green wireless networks worldwide. The paper aims to review performance metrics, describe and classify existing green wireless approaches, and propose a classification framework while highlighting major collaborative projects. It examines component‑level power‑amplifier optimization, cell‑layout adaptations such as cell‑breathing, femtocells, relays, radio‑resource management, and cognitive radio, then analyzes, compares, and integrates these methods into a unified framework.

Abstract

Energy consumption of wireless networks is now a very important research topic and several research teams worldwide are proposing solutions for the so-called green wireless networks, i.e. energy-efficient wireless networks. Although the increase of this research activity is rather recent, a great number of research papers and collaborative projects exist nowadays. We first summarise the metrics used in the related literature for performance evaluation. Then, we focus on describing the current approaches proposed by reviewing a good number of references from literature. The main research directions are presented: the component level research, where the efforts are mainly concentrated on the power amplifier section; the cell layout adaptation including the cell-breathing technique and coverage extension methods like femtocells and relays; in addition, we also include the radio resource management and the cognitive radio into the studied approaches. These methods are analysed, compared, classified and then a framework of classification and integration is proposed. We finally describe some major collaborative projects dedicated to this topic.