Energy Consumption Optimization in Radio Access Networks (ECO-RAN)

Abstract

In recent years, mobile network operators are showing interest in reducing energy consumption. Toward this goal, in cooperation with the Danish company 2Operate we have developed a stochastic simulation environment for mobile networks. Our simulator interacts with historical data from 2Operate and allow us to turn on and off network cells, replay traffic loads, etc. We have developed an optimization tool which is based on stochastic and distributed controllers computed by \uppaal. We have conducted experiments in our simulation tool. Experiments show that there is a potential to save up to 10\% of energy. We observe that for larger networks, there exists a larger potential for saving energy. Our simulator and \uppaal controllers, have been constructed in accordance to the 2Operate data and infrastructure. However, a main difference is that current equipment do not support updating schedulers on hourly bases. Nevertheless, new equipment e.g. new Huawei equipment do support changing schedulers on hourly basis. Therefore, integrating our solution in the production server of 2Operate is possible. However, rigorous testing in the production system is required.