A study on the green cellular network with femtocells

In this paper, we investigate how femtocells can make conventional cellular networks greener. We present an energy consumption modeling framework to evaluate total energy consumption in a cellular network with femtocells. Using the proposed framework, we investigate the energy consumption and performance of the cellular network with femtocells. We consider various network environments, including indoor propagation environment, user distribution near the femtocells, and a femtocell access policy, which have effect on the performance of the cellular network. Simulation results in the various environments show that femtocell is, in general, a greener technology that reduces the total energy consumption in a cellular network. We obtain system performance and energy consumption for three different scenarios: different femtocell penetration rate, different open access rate, and different cell coverage. We have finally provided a guideline that helps system operators deploy and manage a cellular network with femtocells in more greener way.