Power consumption management in a radio access network

A radio access network comprising:

• a plurality of radio resource units;
• and
• circuitry, in or in communication with the plurality of radio resource units, configured to
• a) define a cluster comprising at least two of the plurality of radio resource units of the radio access network;
• b) define a parameter indicative of a performance of the cluster and of a power consumption of the cluster, the parameter being expressed as a ratio of a sum of traffic throughputs carried by the at least two radio resource units to a sum of power consumptions of the at least two radio resource units operating at said traffic throughputs;
• c) calculate optimum traffic throughputs as values of the traffic throughputs that maximize the parameter;
• and
• d) distribute traffic amongst the at least two of the plurality of radio resource units such that the at least two of the plurality of radio resource units carry the optimum traffic throughputs and control the at least two of the plurality of radio resource units to carry the traffic distributed amongst the at least two of the plurality of radio resource units.

A method for managing power consumption of a radio access network, said method comprising:

• defining a cluster comprising at least two radio resource units of said radio access network, using circuitry in the radio access network;
• defining a parameter as a ratio of a performance indicator of said cluster to a power consumption indicator of said cluster, said parameter being a ratio of a sum of traffic throughputs carried by said at least two radio resource units to a sum of power consumptions of the at least two radio resource units operating at said traffic throughputs, using the circuitry in the radio access network;
• calculating optimum traffic throughputs as values of said traffic throughputs that maximize said parameter, using the circuitry in the radio access network;
• and
• distributing traffic among said at least two radio resource units such that said at least two radio resource units carry said optimum traffic throughputs by operating a function executed by at least one node of said radio access network, said function being responsible for implementing traffic steering among said at least two radio resource units, using the circuitry in the radio access network.