Energy-aware resource allocation for OFDMA wireless networks with hybrid energy supplies

In this study, the authors investigate the resource allocation for orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) wireless networks, where the base station is powered by renewable energy and electric grid. To fully exploit the renewable energy, the authors propose an energy-aware resource allocation (EARA) algorithm to maximise the network utility, which captures the tradeoff between the system throughput and the grid energy consumption. Specifically, the EARA algorithm only has to track the current system states (e.g. channel and queueing conditions) without requiring a relevant priori distribution knowledge, making it applicable for practical OFDMA wireless networks with unpredictable channel dynamics, renewable energy arrivals and stochastic traffics. Moreover, the performance achieved by the EARA algorithm is theoretically characterised. Most importantly, the authors develop an implementation architecture to take the EARA algorithm into practice, and also analyse the low implementation costs (e.g. low computational complexity, trivial signalling overhead etc.). Finally, simulation results verify the theoretical analysis and also demonstrate the advantages of the EARA algorithm.