Abstract
Placing smaller cells in a heterogeneous network can be beneficial in terms of energy because better capacities can be obtained for a given energy constraint. These type of deployments not only highlight the need for appropriate metrics to evaluate how well energy is being spent, but also raise important issues that need to be taken into account when analysing the overall use of energy. In this study, handoff strategies, bandwidth allocation and path loss calculations in different scenarios, illustrate how energy can be consumed in a more efficient way when cell size is decreased. As a result, users can experience higher capacities while spending less energy, depending whether they handoff or not, increasing the overall performance of the network.