Abstract

Achieving energy sustainable networks has been a key challenge in the upcoming sixth generation communication technologies. In addition to energy sustainability, cost/revenue aspects to the mobile operator also require to be incorporated in the system design analysis, so as to achieve scalability. In a grid connected and renewable energy harvesting enabled network, we study various network operation frameworks involving traffic management (TM), energy management (EM), intelligent solar provisioning, and further analyze the prospect of joint traffic and energy management (JTEM). First, we outlay the challenges and physical limits involved in optimizing a grid connected and renewable energy powered cellular network framework. Next, we discuss the system design objectives showcasing the evolution of grid connected and renewable energy powered networks. The key design objectives include achieving self-sustainability (i.e., carbon free networks), cost profitability to the operator, in addition to realizing sustainable network clusters. Simulation results demonstrate the superior gain in user quality of service and operator profit obtained through the JTEM framework over other state of art. The article concludes presenting some open issues associated with grid connected sustainable networks.

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