SmartMME: Implementation of Base Station Switching Off Strategy in ns-3

TL;DR

This work proposes SmartMME, as a pivotal solution aimed at optimizing Base Station (BS) energy usage, by harnessing and analyzing critical network states—such as UE connections, data traffic at individual UEs, and other pertinent metrics—and intelligently orchestrates the BS’s power states.

Abstract

In the landscape of next-generation cellular networks, a projected surge of over 12 billion subscriptions foreshadows a considerable upswing in the network's overall energy consumption. The proliferation of User Equipment (UE) drives this energy demand, urging 5G deployments to seek more energy-efficient methodologies. In this work, we propose SmartMME, as a pivotal solution aimed at optimizing Base Station (BS) energy usage. By harnessing and analyzing critical network states-such as UE connections, data traffic at individual UEs, and other pertinent metrics-our methodology intelligently orchestrates the BS's power states, making informed decisions on when to activate or deactivate the BS. This meticulous approach significantly curtails the network's overall energy consumption. In a bid to validate its efficiency, we seamlessly integrated our module into Network Simulator-3 (ns-3), conducting extensive testing to demonstrate its prowess in effectively managing and reducing net energy consumption. As advocates of collaborative progress, we've opted to open-source this module, inviting the engagement and feedback of the wider research community on GitHub.

Figures (3)

• Figure 1: SmartMME : Flow Diagram
• Figure 2: Energy Consumption and average number of UEs connected across different BSs
• Figure 3: Energy Consumption across different scenarios