Distributed DQN-based network-wide energy efficiency maximization for 5G NR-U and Wi-Fi coexistence environments

To effectively manage the escalating traffic, attention is drawn to the coexistence mechanism of cellular and Wi-Fi networks which offload the cellular traffic from the licensed band to the unlicensed band. For the coexistence of 5G new radio-unlicensed and Wi-Fi, we tackle the energy efficiency maximization problem by sequentially determining the duty cycle and transmit power through the use of distributed deep Q-network (DQN) techniques. When utilizing the existing unlicensed band, the proposed method minimizes the impact on Wi-Fi networks while achieving optimal energy efficiency. Simulations validate the superior energy efficiency of the proposed coexistence mechanism over various benchmark methods.