Computation offloading decision algorithm for energy saving in 5G/HetNets C-RAN

Abstract

Cloud Radio Access Network (C-RAN) is a novel mobile network architecture that brings baseband processing units (BBUs) of a set of base stations into a central server keeping only remote radio heads (RRHs) at the cell sites. Because of their limited resources, running sophisticated applications on mobile handsets could result in poor performances and shortened battery lifetime. One promising solution is computation offloading to the cloud. It permits to enhance both QoS and battery life of mobile terminals. In this paper we present a novel offloading decision algorithm that decides about offloading mobile computation to Cloud-RRH, i.e RRH with additional computational and storage resources located in the cloud. The proposed offloading algorithm incorporates a multitude of parameters in the offloading decision process while diminishing the mobile handset energy consumption and keeping a good user quality of experience by reducing application's response time. Simulation shows that the proposed algorithm is able to assure the computation of all the applications while respecting latency constraints and to prolong the mobile handset battery life.