On functionality separation for green mobile networks: Concept study over LTE

Traditional wireless networks are designed for ubiquitous network access provision with low-rate voice services, which thus preserve the homogeneous architecture and tight coupling for infrastructures such as base stations. With the traffic explosion and the paradigm shift from voice-oriented services to data-oriented services, traditional homogeneous architecture no longer maintains its optimality, and heterogeneous deployment with flexible network control capability becomes a promising evolution direction. To achieve this goal, in this article, we propose a two-layer network functionality separation scheme, targeting at low control signaling overhead and flexible network reconfiguration for future mobile networks. The proposed scheme is shown to support all kinds of user activities defined in current networks. Moreover, we give two examples to illustrate how the proposed scheme can be applied to multicarrier networks and suggest two important design principles for future green networks. Numerical results show that the proposed scheme achieves significant energy reduction over traditional LTE networks, and can be recommended as a candidate solution for future green mobile networks.