PRA-HC-RAN: Power reduction algorithm for remote radio heads in homogeneous C-RAN

The Cloud Radio Access Network (C-RAN) is a remarkable architectural solution designed to tackle the challenges of rapidly increasing mobile data traffic and network costs. C-RAN achieves this by decoupling Baseband Units (BBUs) from Remote Radio Units (RRHs) and centralizing them in one or more locations. Among the different C-RAN types, Homogeneous C-RAN (Homo-C-RAN) is characterized by the uniform distribution of RRHs across the mobile network coverage area, requiring all user equipment (UE) to connect to one or more RRHs. Nevertheless, the widespread deployment of Homo-C-RAN faces a significant limitation: the power consumption attributed to the large number of distributed RRHs. To address this issue, this paper introduces a novel algorithm focused on minimizing the average power consumption of the Homo-C-RAN. A Two-Stage Algorithm is proposed to determine an optimized threshold value, which effectively reduces the frequency of RRHs switching between active and sleep modes. This threshold value is then utilized by the Energy-Consumption-sensed Power Reduction Algorithm (PRA) to minimize the total power consumption of RRHs within the Homo-C-RAN topology. The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, showcasing a remarkable reduction of up to $$70\%$$ 70 % in overall power consumption. Through this power-efficient Homo-C-RAN design, the network can handle the growing mobile data demands while mitigating excessive energy usage.