Towards greener smart cities with machine learning-based 'sleep
schedules'
Date:
January 31, 2022
Source:
Shibaura Institute of Technology
Summary:
While cellular networks are the foundation of smart cities, they
consume a lot of energy, enhancing global warming. Putting base
stations (BSs) with low traffic to sleep saves energy but also
reduces traffic prediction accuracy. In a new study, researchers
address this trade-off using machine learning technique to switch
off BSs based on their contribution to prediction accuracy. The
new scheme reduces power consumption and demonstrates a prediction
accuracy superior to benchmark schemes.
FULL STORY ==========================================================================
The concept of smart cities is founded on sophisticated cellular networks
that would not only connect humans in the future but also humans
to other smart devices. However, this would also require huge energy consumption. In the wake of climate change, this can make matters worse
for our environment by increasing the greenhouse gas emissions. Thus,
we not only need smart cities but also greener smart cities.
==========================================================================
One way to address this issue is by switching off base stations (BSs),
radio transmitters/receivers that serve as the hub of the local wireless network, when they have little to no traffic load. Laboratory testing
has shown that active BSs consume as much as 60% of the maximum energy consumption even under no traffic load and switching them off can bring
it down to 40%. However, there is a trade-off: putting BSs to sleep
makes their traffic logs unavailable, which also reduces the accuracy
of traffic prediction. Is there a way to avoid this compromise between
accuracy and sustainability? The answer, according to a new study,
seems to be "yes." The study, led by Professor Ryoichi Shinkuma from
Shibaura Institute of Technology (SIT), Japan, and his colleagues,
Associate Professor Kaoru Ota from Muroran Institute of Technology,
Japan and Associate Professor Takehiro Sato from Kyoto University,
Japan, proposed a novel scheme that not only reduced energy consumption
but demonstrated a higher traffic prediction accuracy compared to the
benchmark schemes! This paper was published in Volume 35, Issue 6 of
the journal IEEE Network Magazine on November/December 2021.
How did the researchers achieve this remarkable feat? Prof. Shinkuma
explains, "We applied software defined network (SDN) and edge computing
to a cellular network such that each BS is equipped with an SDN switch,
and an SDN controller can turn off any BS according to the traffic
prediction results. An edge server collects the traffic logs through the
SDN switches and predicts traffic volume using machine learning (ML)."
The ML method used by the researchers decided which BSs could be put into "sleep mode" based on the importance of their traffic logs in improving
the prediction accuracy. Thus, BSs with low contribution to the accuracy
for previous time slots were put to sleep at the next slot to save energy.
To validate their scheme, the researchers used real-world mobile traffic
data collected over two months and compared its performance against that
of two benchmark schemes. To their delight, the new scheme outperformed
the benchmark schemes in its robustness against reducing the number of
active BSs and different BS sets.
Could this study be a harbinger of greener cellular networks and smart
cities? Prof. Shinkuma is optimistic. "By intelligently controlling the operation of BSs, renewable energy sources could be used to power future networks and, depending on the availability of renewable energy resource,
the sleep schedules of the BSs can be determined," he speculates.
========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
Shibaura_Institute_of_Technology. Note: Content may be edited for style
and length.
========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Ryoichi Shinkuma, Naoki Kishi, Kaoru Ota, Mianxiong Dong,
Takehiro Sato,
Eiji Oki. Smarter Base Station Sleeping for Greener Cellular
Networks.
IEEE Network, 2021; 35 (6): 98 DOI: 10.1109/MNET.110.2100224 ==========================================================================
Link to news story:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220131131920.htm
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