Energy Sustainability in Dense Radio Access Networks via High Altitude Platform Stations

The growing demand for radio access networks (RANs) driven by advanced wireless technology and the everincreasing mobile traffic, faces significant energy consumption challenges that threaten sustainability. To address this, an architecture referring to the vertical heterogeneous network (vHetNet) has recently been proposed. Our study seeks to enhance network operations in terms of energy efficiency and sustainability by examining a vHetNet configuration, comprising a high altitude platform station (HAPS) acting as a super macro base station (SMBS), along with a macro base station (MBS) and a set of small base stations (SBSs) in a densely populated area.