Semi-dynamic switch on/off algorithm over multi-pico stations in Heterogeneous Network

Multi-pico stations are usually planned to deploy in the hot-spot area by operators to enhance the capacity in the Heterogeneous Network (Het-Net) in terms of the peak traffic load. However, the traffic load in hotspot area has significant temporal fluctuations which create opportunities for the switch on/off scheme for energy saving. In this paper, we define a pico station in the hotspot area called Common Control Pico Station (CCPS) which cannot be switched off to guarantee the coverage of pico stations and propose a low-complexity semi-dynamic switch on/off algorithm which can adaptively adjust the work mode of those multi-pico stations based on the traffic load, outage performance and energy consumption to achieve the purpose of cost-efficient communication. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method can save a lot of energy without obvious loss in outage performance.