Analysis of joint usage of energy conservation strategies for 5G devices with reduced capability

The recently standardized Reduced capability (RedCap) user equipment (UE) type for 5G systems, New Radio (NR), supports new mechanisms to limit power consumption. Using a combination of Discontinuous Reception (DRX), Wake-Up Signal (WUS), and Radio Resource Management (RRM) relaxation techniques, RedCap-enabled UEs can provide high energy efficiency while meeting the speed requirements for a large set of applications. The present authors investigate the impact of the above mechanisms on the energy consumption of UEs in 5G NR networks. To this aim, the authors propose a mathematical model that captures the specifics of these mechanisms and environmental and deployment characteristics. Energy efficiency and battery life time are considered as the main characteristics. The numerical results demonstrate that combining all the considered energy saving mechanisms allows to improve the battery life time by 15%–20%. The WUS mechanism shows better performance as compared to the RRM relaxation. These conclusions hold for a wide range of input system parameters, including packet interarrival time and blockers density.