Reducing Power Consumption and Total Cost in C-RAN Based on Dynamic BBU Allocation

Cloud Radio Access Network (C-RAN) architecture has been anticipated as an effective approach to overcoming next generation (5G) wireless challenges by combining RAN and cloud networking. C-RAN demands a new paradigm of energy consumption and optimized its resources. In this paper, a C-RAN with dynamic Base Band Unit (BBU) allocation is presented, and based on this allocation we propose a power model aiming to decrease the total network power consumption. We also propose a cost model to reduce the total cost of the C-RAN. This paper also develops analytical models that enable to compare traditional RAN (T-RAN) design with the emerging Cloud RAN paradigm. Numerical results come about based on simulation settings recommend that the proposed C-RAN has better performance than the traditional network in terms of both power consumption and system cost.