Energy Efficiency in Mixed Access Networks

Abstract

This paper tackles the multifaceted challenges of controlling mixed access networks with base stations, access points and D2D relay stations. Mixed access networks are of uncompelling importance since the next generation cellular access networks are envisioned to use different access technologies at once. We propose a unified framework to model throughput, airtime and power consumption of mobile terminals under any workload conditions in SDN-controlled mixed access networks. With our analysis, we formulate an access selection problem to optimize energy efficiency at the terminal side, while providing fair throughput guarantees. We show that the problem is NP-hard and propose an online low-complexity heuristic that largely outperforms legacy access selection policies. Our results indicate that energy efficiency can be traded off for fairness and that D2D relay is key to increase both energy efficiency and fairness.