A Satisfactory Power Control for 5G Self-Organizing Networks

Small-Cells are deployed in order to enhance the network performance by bringing the network closer to the user. However, as the number of low power nodes grows increasingly, the overall energy consumption of the Small-Cells base stations cannot be ignored. A relevant amount of energy could be saved through several techniques, especially power control mechanisms. In this paper, we are concerned with energyaware self-organizing networks that guarantee a satisfactory performance. We consider satisfaction equilibria, mainly the efficient satisfaction equilibrium (ESE), to ensure a target quality of service (QoS) and save energy. First, we identify conditions of existence and uniqueness of ESE under a stationary channel assumption. We fully characterize the ESE and prove that, whenever it exists, it is a solution of a linear system. Moreover, we define satisfactory Pareto optimality and show that, at the ESE, no player can increase its QoS without degrading the overall performance. Under a fast fading channel assumption, as the robust satisfaction equilibrium solution is very restrictive, we propose an alternative solution namely the “long term satisfaction equilibrium”, and describe how to reach this solution efficiently. Finally, in order to find satisfactory solution per all users, we propose fully distributed strategic learning schemes based on Banach-Picard, Mann and Bush-Mosteller algorithms, and show through simulations their qualitative properties.