SON Handover Algorithm for Green LTE-A/5G HetNets

Fourth generation networks and beyond (5G) have recently emerged to satisfy the increasing demand for high data bit rates. Cost-effective means such as small cells have been designed in 3GPP LTE-Advanced standard since the Release 10 to significantly enhance coverage and capacity. The deployment of small cells over Macrocells layer introduces a new type of networks called Heterogeneous Networks (HetNets). Another cost saving concept is Self-Organizing Networks (SON) which aims at minimizing human efforts in management and operating processes. The last emerging trend for cost effectiveness is to save energy especially in access networks by turning off the unused stations. In this context, we propose a new green procedure that aims at minimizing the energy consumption in LTE-Advanced/5G access networks using Handover self-optimization SON function. We also introduce a new mathematical model for energy cost calculations. Performance evaluation results show that our proposed algorithm considerably reduces the energy consumption in the network for all scenarios related to user speed.