Improving Energy Efficiency of Massive MIMO

Network Using Advanced Sleep Mode Technique

Israa Hilme Ahmed (  israa.h.ahmed44342@st.tu.edu.iq )
Tikrit University
Ayad Atiyah Abdulkafi
Tikrit University

Research Article

Keywords: Energy Efficiency. Massive MIMO. Power Consumption. Sleep Mode. Spectral Efficiency

Posted Date: September 14th, 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-3334541/v1

License:   This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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Abstract
Massive multiple-input multiple-output (Massive MIMO) is regarded as a potential technique to increase
spectral efficiency (SE) and energy efficiency (EE) For the next generation of wireless networks.
Meanwhile, EE is becoming an increasingly important concern for communications operators in order to
not only maintain profitability but also reduce the overall negative impact on the environment. In this
paper, a new advanced sleep mode (ASM) technique dedicated to massive MIMO network is proposed. In
proposed ASM based massive MIMO, a certain number of antennas are switched ON/OFF according to
the traffic loads aiming to improve the EE performance. Simulation results show that significant energy
efficiency gains can be achieved by the proposed ASM based massive MIMO, especially in low load
conditions. At optimal SE, the proposed approach improves the network EE by up to 3%, 24% and 54.6%
for high, medium, and low traffic load factors, respectively, when compared to traditional MIMO operation
without sleep mode.

1. Introduction
In recent times, there has been significant focus on the energy consumption of communication systems
due to their high energy expenses and the resulting carbon footprint [1]. The growth in the quantity of
mobile users, the demand for data traffic, and the resulting expansion of network infrastructure have
caused a quick rise in energy consumption for businesses operating in the information and
communication technology (ICT) sector [2]. As a result, both industry and academic researchers are
working hard to develop high-energy efficient communication technologies, particularly for the NextG of
wireless systems [3]. Green communication is a crucial strategy for achieving this goal. Adopting green
communication reduces the total environmental impact while also assisting ICT in cutting power
consumption (PC) and operational costs for enterprises [4]. As a result, to improve EE in wireless
networks, all communication layers, including hardware, data connection, and network levels, have been
implemented [5]. To making cellular networks more "green" starts with BSs because they consume a large
amount of the overall energy in cellular networks. The BS's power consumption grows exponentially as
the number of UEs it serves and their needs grow due to fluctuations in traffic density [6]. In recent
wireless communication systems, it has been shown that despite the considerable variations in traffic
loads across time, the power consumption remains rather constant. To clarify, the power consumption of
these networks typically remains unaffected by variations in traffic load due to their design being based
on peak traffic load together with a reserve [7, 8]. In order to improve energy efficiency (EE), it is imperative
that the power consumption (PC) of the base station (BS) corresponds closely with the volume of traffic
load it handles. The attainment of this target can be accomplished through the utilization of hardware
equipment and software components that exhibit enhanced efficiency and adaptability in response to
fluctuating traffic loads [9, 10]. According to the measurements presented in reference [7], it is seen that
the daily peak load on the network surpasses the daily low load by an amount between 2 to 10. As a
result, a considerable quantity of energy is consumed at the base stations (BSs) during off-peak periods.
In[11, 12], the approximated daily traffic load profile is exhibited in Fig. 1. It can be seen that from (4 AM)

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to (8 AM) the traffic load is under low traffic load and from (7 PM) to (11PM) is higher than the high
traffic load.

In this paper, the utilization of low traffic load hours to reduce the power consumption by using the sleep
mode technique has been investigated via switching off many antennas that have no traffic load.

2. System Model
The system model for the massive MIMO which is include massive number of antennas that cover a
group of cells as shown in Fig. 2., some of cells have not contain user equipment these cells will be taken
in sleep mode technique while other cells which contain number of user equipment remained in active
mode.

The following subsections and describing the system model in term of the data rate, traffic load, power
consumption, EE and sleep mode models.

2.1 Data Rates

The speed of data transmission in wireless communication is determined by data rates (R) and the
number of bits transported from one device to another or through a network per second is referred to as
the data rate. Achieving high data rates in wireless communication systems often involves a trade-off
between performance, complexity, and cost. These limitations make it challenging to reach the peak data
rate. Nevertheless, Shannon's formula, as in Eq. 1, can be used to compute the maximum theoretical data
rate for a single antenna transmission in a static channel. The data rate (R) in bits/second can be
represented in

R = BT log (1 + SN R) (1)
2

Which BT is the total bandwidth and increasing power transmission to improve the signal-to-noise ratio
(SNR) can enhance spectral efficiency (SE). However, there's a limit to this improvement as interference
can ultimately restrict the network's ability to achieve high SEs. SE evaluates how much of data that can
be transferred across a given channel per complex sample in bits, and is commonly stated as bit/s/Hz.
The data rate determines the maxSE, which was stated by Claude Shannon in his seminal paper [13] as
SE = R/BT, and also SE representation as

SE = log (1 + (M − 1) SN R) (2)
2

p
SE = log (1 + (M − 1) β) (3)
2
2
σ

Where σ2 is the noise power, p is the transmitting power in [W], M is the number of antennas, and β
represents the average channel gain of the activated user equipment, and then taking into account the
impact of multiple users’ equipment the SE becomes sumSE as
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 ⎛ ⎞
M − 1
SEsum = Klog ⎜1 + ⎟ (4)
2 ⎜ ⎟
−
A
⎝ K β +K − 1 + ⎠
p

−
2
σ
Where A =
β
, K is the number of users and β is the inter-cell interference's relative strength.

2.2 Traffic Load

Traffic load distribution is commonly uneven among cells and can vary considerably over time. Therefore,
it is crucial to explore approaches that assess the energy efficiency of wireless networks displaying such
behavior. The mathematical expression for the traffic load factor (L) of the base station (BS) can be
defined as the ratio between the bandwidth utilized by the users connected to the BS (Bk) and the total
bandwidth allocated to that specific BS (BT).

Bk ∗ K
L = (5)
BT

Subject to Bk × K ≤ BT.

2.3 Power Consumption

The circuit power (CP) in a BS of a wireless communication system refers to the amount of electrical
power consumed by the electronic circuits and components in the BS, which are responsible for
processing and transmitting the signals to and from mobile devices. The circuit power contains the power
that is necessary for the functioning of its diverse components, including amplifiers, filters, oscillators,
and modulators/demodulators. Additionally, it encompasses the power need for cooling and other
supplementary systems. It is an essential element needed for accurately measuring power consumption
(PC) and prevent any misunderstandings about the EE.

C P = PF I X + M Pant + KPU E (6)

Where PFIX is fixed power in [W] as well as the power necessary for baseband processors, load-
independent activities and backhaul infrastructure, Pant is the power consumed by the circuit components
needed for the operation of each BS antenna in [W] and PUE is power consumed by each user equipment.

The power consumption (PC) should be calculated using the effective transmit power (ETP) rather than
the radiated transmit power, and the circuit power (CP) required to operate the cellular network equipment
should also be taken into account [13].

K
P C = ET P + C P = p + PF I X + M Pant + KPU E (7)
η
PA

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Eq. 7. represents the power consumption when all massive MIMO in active mode (PC), the ETP is η
1
p
PA

without impact of user equipment and ηPA is power amplifier efficiency (0 < ηPA ≤ 1).

2.4 Energy Efficiency

Energy efficiency (EE) in a cellular network is a measure of how effectively data can be transmitted in
relation to the energy consumed. It is defined as the ratio of the number of bits that can be transmitted
reliably to the amount of energy consumed, and can be expressed as

R [bit/s]
EE = (8)
PC [W ]

This definition of EE is also known as the benefit cost ratio because it compares the data rate to the
associated costs (power consumption). It is an important metric to consider when designing and
2
σ
optimizing cellular networks for efficient data transmission [13]. The EE can be representing with A =
β

as

M −1
BT Klog (1 + )
2 −
A
Kβ+K−1+
p

EE = (9)
K
p + PF I X + M Pant + KPU E
η
PA

2.5 Sleep Mode Technique Model

Cellular networks are commonly designed to accommodate the maximum peaks in traffic load, leading to
inefficient power usage throughout periods of low traffic load [14]. Under conditions of low demand, it is
possible to achieve the same data rate by utilizing a reduced number of active antennas, while
maintaining the same level of bandwidth utilization. The proposed concept involves shutting specific
antennas within a MIMO network when their respective traffic loads decrease below a predetermined
threshold for a specified duration. The sleep mode in number of antennas in MIMO network can be
defined as number of antenna after sleep mode ON (Mr) which is the difference between number of
antenna without sleep mode (M) and number of antenna in sleep mode (H) as

Mr = M − H (10)

With sleep mode technique the power consumption (PCsleep) is become as

K
P C sleep = p + PFIX + KPU E + M Pant − H Pant (11)
η
PA

When considering the effective relationship between the EE and the real traffic load. The energy efficiency
with sleep mode (EEsleep) can be written as

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 Bk 2 M −1
K log (1 + )
L 2 −
A
Kβ+K−1+
p

EE sleep = (12)
K
p + PF I X +KPU E + M P ant − H Pant
η
PA

Consequently, the difference between the EE (when all massive MIMO in active mode) and EEsleep (some
MIMO in sleep mode when they have no traffic load) can be considered as

EEsleep − EE
EEgain = × 100\% (13)
EEsleep

3. Simulation Methodology
The system parameters and simulation technique are presented in this section. For study campaigns,
three traffic load factors are defined. The first is a low load traffic (20%), medium load traffic (50%) and
finally is the high load traffic (90%). Massive MIMO is a wireless network that uses a large number of
antennas (M) at the BS to improve the data rate (R) and EE of wireless communication.

The proposed model of sleep mode technique in MIMO network as shown in Fig. 3. First define all system
parameters and then define the traffic load for BS within MIMO network. After then calculate the data rate
and then the power consumption. It must be checked if all number of antennas are fully load or not fully
loaded. When all antennas in MIMO network are not fully loaded it must be enabled sleep mode by
shutting down antennas if there are any antenna with no traffic load and then PCsleep calculation. Finally
compute the EE performance.

The main parameters for the simulation for improving the EE of the massive MIMO system using ASM
technique are listed in Table 1.

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 Table 1
Simulation parameters
Notation Description Default Value

−
The inter-cell interference's relative strength [dB] -15

A The noise power to average channel gain ratio [dBm] -6

BT Total bandwidth [MHz] 100

K Number of user’s 1024

M The total number of antennas 256

PBS The power consumed of each BS antenna [W] 1

PFIX Fixed power in [W] 10

PUE The power consumed of each UE’s in single antenna [W] 0.5

ηPA Power amplifier efficiency 40%

4. Results and Discussion

This section presents the performed simulation results and discussion on the predefined model. It has
been considered an appropriate number of 256×256 MIMO for the EE calculations with different
schemes.

4.1 Power Consumption

MIMO systems can consume significant amounts of power, especially when operating at high data rates.
The power consumption of a MIMO system is determined by various factors, including the number of
antennas, the signal processing algorithms used, and the transmit power levels.

Sleep mode techniques can be used in MIMO systems to reduce power consumption while maintaining
high data rates when there are differences in traffic load factor (L). The various traffic load has not affect
in the PC in case without taken the impact of power consumed of users’ equipment and it remained
constant power consumption (PC) (it is remained at 250W) as shown in Fig. 4. As can be noted with the
sleep mode technique, at high traffic load factor (L = 90%) the consumed power (PCsleep) is less than the
PC about (25W), and it decreases more when the medium traffic load factor (L = 50%) about (120W), and
it is dramatically decreases when the low traffic load factor (L = 20%) about (200W).

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On the other hand, in the case of the impact of users’ equipment is taken to account the power
consumption (PC). The power consumption (PC) increase with increasing the traffic load factor (L)
because increasing traffic load mean increase active user equipment (K) as shown in Fig. 5. and then
after sleep mode, the PCsleep is less than the PC in high traffic load factor about (25W) also in medium
traffic load factor PCsleep is less than PC about (130W). Finally, the effect of the sleep mode technique
appears in power consumption more in the case of a low traffic load factor about (205W).

4.2 Energy Efficiency

Energy Efficiency (EE) is a measure of the amount of energy required to transmit a certain amount of
data. Sleep mode techniques can be improved EE in massive MIMO network. The energy efficiency (EE)
(without sleep mode) slightly reduced by increasing the traffic load factor (L) as shown in Fig. 6. because
of slightly increasing in PC without account the power consumption of each user equipment. Also it can
be noted the energy efficiency dramatically improves when operating the sleep mode technology (EEsleep)
compared to the EE, especially at low traffic loads factor (L = 20%), also in medium traffic load factor (L =
50%) but there is more less improvement in high traffic load factor (90%).

On the other hand, with calculating the impact of the power consumed for each user equipment, it can be
noticed that the energy efficiency (EE) as shown in Fig. 7. is less than the energy efficiency shown in Fig.
6. due to the increase in the total power consumed in each case of the traffic load factor. Also, an
improvement in energy efficiency was noticed when operating the sleep mode technology (EEsleep) after
reducing the traffic load factor, as the improvement in EEsleep is greater at the low traffic load factor and it
is less when the medium traffic load factor and it is almost non-existent when the high traffic load factor.

Finally, it can be noted that the EEgain at non-optimal SE is more in low traffic load and then the medium
and much less in high traffic load as shown in Fig. 8. It is about 73% ,46% and 9.5% for low, medium and
high traffic load factor in case of without impact of user equipment and it is about 54.73%, 31.64% and
5.95% for low, medium and high traffic load factor in case of with impact of user equipment.

4.3 Sleep Mode and Tradeoff Between EE and SE

SE will increase as more BS antennas and multiple UEs are installed in the cell, and this increase in SE
will lead to an increase in PC. This phenomenon will reduce the overall EE, so a mechanism that can
jointly improve SE and EE is needed. Sleep mode techniques has been investigating to improve the
maximum EE at optimal SE as shown in Fig. 9. firstly, without sleep mode operation the EE and SE
increase in each case of traffic load until the EE reaches its maximum value at optimal SE, also it can be
noted the EE and SE increase with increase the traffic load factor (L) until the traffic load factor reaches
into the full load where the maximum EE at optimal SE reaches its maximum value. On the other hand,
with sleep mode technique it can be observed the EE and SE decrease with increase the traffic load factor
(L) (such as the maximum EE at optimal SE is at low traffic load factor) and all results are shown in Table
2.
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Finally, it can be noted that the highest gain in energy efficiency (EEgain) at optimal SE was obtained in
the case of low traffic load by about 54.6%, and it is less than it when the medium traffic load factor is
about 24%, and it is very weak at the high traffic load factor by about 3% as shown in Fig. 10.

Table 2
Sleep Mode and Tradeoff Between EE and SE
Traffic load Max EE [Mbit/Joule] Sleep mode Max EEON [Mbit/Joule] Optimal SE [bit/s/Hz]

L = 20% 16.79 80% 36.98 62.92

L = 50% 29.27 50% 38.52 155.8

L = 90% 37.61 10% 38.92 280.4

Full load 39 0% 39 311.5

5. Conclusion
In this paper, we have developed a new advance sleep mode method approach technique in massive
MIMO systems to improve EE and SE for the next generation of wireless communication systems. Several
simulations have been carried out to improve the validness and the effeteness of our proposed method.
Results show that at optimal SE, the EE of Massive MIMO has been enhanced by up to 3%, 24%, and
54.6% for high, medium, and low traffic load factors, respectively, when compared to traditional Massive
MIMO operation without sleep mode. Also the EEgain at non-optimal SE is more in low traffic load and
then the medium and much less in high traffic load, it was about 73% ,46% and 9.5% for low, medium and
high traffic load factor in case of without impact of user equipment and it was about 54.73%, 31.64% and
5.95% for low, medium and high traffic load factor in case of with impact of user equipment. Finally, it is
worth noting that the PC decrease dramatically after sleep mode technique in low traffic load factor. As
an extension of this work, it is interesting to consider a network with multiple BSs each combined with
massive MIMO and consider cooperation between them to have the highest possible energy improvement
gains with the minimal effect on the spectral efficiency.

Declarations
Ethical Approval

Not applicable

Competing interests

Wireless Communication

Authors' contributions

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Mathematical modelling, Simulations, Results Analysis and Discussion, Paper Writing and presentation
done equally by Authors

Funding

No funding

Availability of data and materials

Available on request

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Figures

Figure 1

Daily traffic load profile [11, 12]

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Figure 2

Massive MIMO network model

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Figure 3

Flow chart of sleep mode technique in massive MIMO network

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Figure 4

Sleep mode technique in the relationship between PC and traffic load without taken the impact of users’
equipment.

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Figure 5

Sleep mode technique in the relationship between PC and traffic load with taken the impact of users’
equipment.

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Figure 6

Sleep mode technique in the relationship between EE and traffic load without taken the impact of users’
equipment.

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Figure 7

Sleep mode technique in the relationship between EE and traffic load with taken the impact of users’
equipment.

Figure 8

EE Gain Verse Traffic Load at non-optimal SE

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Figure 9

Sleep Mode and Tradeoff Between EE and SE

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Figure 10

EE Gain Verse Traffic Load at optimal SE

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