Energy efficiency analysis of cache-enabled cooperative dense small cell networks

Dense small cells have been considered as a promising solution for improving system throughput in the future 5th generation networks. When a large number of small cells are overlapped, serious inter-cell interference becomes one of the major technical challenges. Meanwhile, the energy efficiency (EE) of dense small cell networks (SCNs) attracts considerable concern, as well as the number of small cell base stations (SCBS)s in system, transmission power of each SCBS and caching capacity. Thus, the authors attempt to explore the potential of EE of cache-enabled cooperative dense SCNs in this study. By deriving the closed-form expression of the EE based on affinity propagation-based clustering, the authors analyse the relationship between EE and the transmitter power, and that between EE and the number of SCBSs in system. Then, the optimal transmit power and the optimal number of SCBSs in the system are worked out under different antennas of each SCBS. Through numerical analysis and simulation, the authors demonstrate the feasibility and validity of their research.