Energy efficiency analysis for large-scale antenna systems considering circuit consumption

Abstract

Large-scale antenna array, with appropriate signal processing, provides the multiple signal paths, thereby higher data rate and more reliable communication can be achieved. In Green Communication, the design of the large-scale antenna system pursues an energy efficiency. In the previous works, the authors has focused on the effect of unlimited number of transmit antennas which results in reduction of fading impairment and improves data throughput and reliability. In this paper, we investigate the energy efficiency for multiple cellular systems with large-scale antenna array at base stations (BSs). In particular, to apply a practical transmit power of the BSs, we propose a practical transmit power model where the model applies increased power consumption of BSs along the increase on the number of transmit antennas. The transmit power model considers not only transmit power on the power amplifier but also circuit power dissipated by analog devices. Through construction of power model and modification of energy efficiency formulation based on established transmit power model, we demonstrate and analyze the tendency of the energy efficiency and we show that the energy efficiency reaches a maximum point at the certain number of transmit antennas.