Improving Energy Efficiency for IoT Communications in 5G Networks

Increase in number of Internet of Things (IoT) devices is quickly changing how mobile networks are being used by shifting more usage to uplink transmissions rather than downlink transmissions. Currently, mobile network uplinks utilize Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) schemes due to the low Peak to Average Power Ratio (PAPR) when compared to Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA). In an IoT perspective, power ratios are highly important in effective battery usage since devices are typically resource-constrained. Fifth Generation (5G) mobile networks are believed to be the future standard network that will handle the influx of IoT device uplinks while preserving the quality of service (QoS) that current Long Term Evolution Advanced (LTE-A) networks provide. In this paper, the Enhanced OEA algorithm was proposed and simulations showed a reduction in the device energy consumption and an increase in the power efficiency of uplink transmissions while preserving the QoS rate provided with SC-FDMA in 5G networks. Furthermore, the computational complexity was reduced through insertion of a sorting step prior to resource allocation