An Energy-Saving Scheme with Multi-Hop Transmission for mmWave Backhaul Networks

Due to the ultra-dense deployment of small cells in 5G millimeter wave (mmWave) backhaul networks, the consumed energy of transmitting data flows will increase significantly. In this paper, we propose an energy-saving scheme for the mmWave backhaul networks to minimize the energy consumption with the throughput requirements and data flows transmitting order satisfied. In the scheme, based on the concurrent transmission, the Space/Time- Division Multiple Access (STDMA) groups are established and the Joint Time Allocation and Power Control (JTAPC) algorithm is proposed to achieve low energy consumption. Besides, the transmission order for the multi-hop backhaul networks is considered by designing a status indicator. Simulations in the 60 GHz band are conducted to demonstrate the superior performance of our algorithm in energy consumption and system throughput.