Numerical analysis of the power saving with a bursty traffic model in LTE-Advanced networks

We analyze the power saving operation called Discontinuous Reception (DRX) with a novel bursty packet arrival model in 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE)-Advanced networks. Typical analytical studies on the power saving operations in wireless networks have been carried out under the assumption that an expectation of exponentially distributed packet arrival intervals stays unchanged. However, practical packet arrival rate may change depending on time or typical Internet services may incur bursty packet arrivals. In either case, we need to evaluate the performance of the DRX operation. For this purpose, we develop a more realistic traffic arrival model considering packets may arrive in a bursty manner under the DRX operation. We, then, analyze the performance of the DRX operation in terms of power saving efficiency and average queuing delay, respectively. The analytical results are validated via comparisons with simulation results. Now, we are witnessing the 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless networks are launched to provide high speed Internet services. 1 Thanks to the 3GPP LTE networks, mobile users are allowed to enjoy high speed Internet services everywhere. In near future, the 3GPP LTE-Advanced networks are expected to be deployed for better services. So far, the wireless network issues on the power saving operations have been considered important all the time since the power saving operations are necessary to extend the lifetime of the battery-powered devices, thus improving user convenience. Accordingly, most wireless networks including IEEE 802.16/m Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks (WMANs) and IEEE 802.11 Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) [1–3] provide the power saving schemes. In [4–10], the authors have tried to analyze the power saving schemes for the wireless network standards. Obviously, LTE and LTE-Advanced wireless network standards specify the power saving operation called Discontinuous Reception (DRX) operation in order to reduce redundant power consumption while User Equipments (UEs) are serviced with realtime and/or lightly loaded traffic [11–14]. LTE and LTE-Advanced network technologies have evolved from the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). For this reason, the LTE-Advanced network's DRX operation inherits most features from the UMTS. For the purpose of analyzing UMTS' DRX operation, the authors of [15–20] made efforts to analyze the performance under the assumption that packet arrival intervals are exponentially distributed. After that, the authors of [21–23] analyzed the performance of the LTE's DRX operation with the same assumptions regarding packet arrival patterns. Recently, the authors of [24] introduced an easy way toward accurate equations for the …