Discontinuous Reception Based Energy-Efficient User Association for 5G Heterogeneous Networks

Abstract

5G Heterogeneous Network (HetNet) allows User Equipment (UEs) massive connections and various applications, which results in an exponential increase in the data traffic. This leads to massive overloading at co-tier and inter-tier levels, UE power inefficiency at the cell edge, and complexing Quality of Service (QoS) support. In this paper, we propose a scheme to solve the load balancing among Base Stations (BSs) while, enhancing power efficiency and guaranteeing QoS of UEs. The proposed heuristic scheme consists of three phases. The first phase addresses the UE's Discontinuous Reception (DRX) configuration parameters, the second phase evaluates overloading, and the third phase offloads the data from the overloaded BS to other BS. We have categorized the performance indicators, 1) User performance parameters (UPP) such as DRX power saving, packet drop rate, and end-to-end delay, 2) Network Performance Parameters (NPP) such as throughput. To validate, we design an analytical model based on a two-dimensional continuous-time Markov chain (2D-CTMC) and semi-Markov, and a simulator that validates the scheme performance. The results show that the proposed scheme enhances the performance in terms of UPP and the NPP. INDEX TERMS Heterogeneous Network (HetNet), Discontinuous Reception/Transmission (DRX/DTX), load balancing, Quality of Service (QoS), continuous-time Markov chain (CTMC), semi-Markov I. INTRODUCTION 1 This article has been accepted for publication in IEEE Access.