Toward 5G: Smart and Green Scenarios

Abstract

The first wave of 4th Generation systems is finally being deployed over Europe, providing a vehicle for broadband mobile services at anytime, anyplace and anywhere. However, mobile traffic is still growing (Cisco in Visual Networking Index: Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update 2012–2017, [1]) and the need for more sophisticated broadband services will further push the limit on current standards to provide even tighter integration between wireless technologies and higher speeds, requiring a new generation of mobile communications: the so-called 5G. The evolution towards 5G is considered to be the convergence of internet services with legacy mobile networking standards leading to the commonly used term “mobile internet” over heterogeneous networks (HetNets), with very high connectivity speeds. In addition, green communications seem to play a pivotal role in this evolutionary path with key mobile stake holders driving momentum towards a greener society through cost-effective design approaches. In fact it is becoming increasingly clear from new emerging services and technological trends that energy and cost per bit reduction, service ubiquity, and high speed connectivity are becoming desirable traits for next generation networks. This chapter provides an introduction to the solutions presented in the book, by investigating potential smart and energy efficient scenarios for the 5G paradigm, which explores how cooperation working in synergy with seamless handovers using context information can provide the platform for significant energy saving at the mobile device. Given these scenarios, we define the system requirements and propose a functional architecture on which solutions proposed throughout this book are built.