Energy and coverage efficiency trade-off in 5G small cell networks

Abstract: When small cells are densely deployed in the fifth generation (5G) cellular networks, the base stations (BSs) switch-off strategy is an effective approach for saving energy consumption considering changes of traffic load. In general, the loss of coverage efficiency is an inevitable cost for cellular networks adopting BSs switch-off strategies. Based on the BSs switch-off strategy, an optimized energy density efficiency of hard core point process (HCPP) small cell networks is proposed to trade off the energy and coverage efficiency. Simulation results imply that the minimum active BS distance used for the BSs switch-off strategy is recommended as 150 meters to achieve a tradeoff between energy and coverage efficiency in 5G small cell networks.