Optimal control for base station sleep mode in energy efficient radio access networks

In this paper, we investigate network sleep mode for reducing energy consumption of radio access networks. We propose an offline-optimized controller that associates to each traffic an activation/deactivation policy that maximizes a multiple objective function of the Quality of Service (QoS) and the energy consumption. We focus on practical implementation issues that may affect the QoS and the stability of the system. We namely consider the activation time issue that results in the degradation of the throughput and the ping-pong effect that results in unnecessary ON/OFF oscillations. We illustrate our results numerically in beyond 3G networks.