An Energy and Cost Aware Framework for Cell Selection and Energy Cooperation in Rural and Remote Femtocell Networks

To extend cellular coverage in rural and remote regions, deployment of femtocells is the most promising solution. The unavailability of round the clock grid power can be compensated by the use of renewal energy sources such as wind and solar. Additionally, energy cooperation among femtocells can further reduce the overall need for grid energy thereby lowering the operators’ operational expenditure. In this paper, we consider a network of femtocells primarily powered by a hybrid (solar and grid) energy source, and provide an energy and cost aware framework for energy cooperation and cell selection. Our proposed framework not only considers the energy consumption at the femtocells but also the associated cost and losses due to energy storage and cooperation. Our results show that our proposed framework has the potential to simultaneously improve the performance of the network in terms of energy consumption and cost.