A* algorithm based power minimization for discontinuous operations in G.fast

Ankita Raj, Pravesh Biyani, Sandip Aine

Abstract: To enable energy efficiency, G.fast standards define discontinuous operations (DO) where a set of users can remain inactive while others transmit during a time domain duplex (TDD) frame. In this work, we investigate energy efficient discontinuous operations (DO) by scheduling users to time slots, such that the total energy consumption is minimized while satisfying the individual data rate constraints. Since the user-slot assignment problem is NP complete in nature, we propose the use of weighted A* algorithm that achieves reasonable performance with limited computational resources. The main insight of this work is that on using our user-slot assignment algorithm and by only precoding during the normal operations, we achieve the same energy efficiency as achieved by precoding strategies like discontinuous vectoring [1] while satisfying the provisions of the G.fast standard.