PS-SPS: Power saving-semi persistent scheduler for VoLTE in LTE-advanced

Long Term Evolution-Advanced (LTE-A) that promises better support to richer applications is expected to catalyze the explosive growth in the number of subscribers and their demand for traffic. Such unprecedented growth will push the limits of energy consumption in the operators network. Hence, there is a need to introduce power saving mechanisms in LTE-A to minimize the energy consumption. In this paper, we propose a new scheme known as Power Saving-Semi Persistent Scheduling (PS-SPS) for Voice over LTE (VoLTE) users in the downlink of LTE-A cell to reduce the energy consumption in eNodeB. PS-SPS introduces the power saving ability through a novel modification of the traditional SPS scheme while retaining its ability to support large number of VoLTE calls. Extensive simulations show that PS-SPS provides an enormous power saving of upto 70% and 35% in the eNodeB for a call arrival rate of 0.1 call/sec and 4 calls/sec respectively in a 20 MHz LTE-A cell with 120 VoLTE users as compared to the traditional SPS.