Abstract
The fast-moving world relies on intelligent connected networks to support the numerous applications of the expanded Internet-of-Things (IoT). The evolving communication requirements of this connected world require a new sixth generation (6G) radio to enable intelligent interaction with the massive number of connected objects. The energy management of billions of connected devices supporting massive Internet-of-Things (IoT) applications is the main challenge. These IoT devices and connected nodes are energy limited, and hence, energy-aware solutions are needed to enable seamless information flow between these communicating nodes. This paper presents an intelligent network solution for improved energy efficiency in a 6G-enabled expanded IoT network. A cell-free massive multiple input multiple output (mMIMO) technology is utilized for maximum energy efficiency with optimum network resource allocation. A practical power consumption model is proposed for the designed network topology which contains all the power components related to data transmission and circuit power. The proposed scheme aims to achieve maximum energy efficiency by the optimal allocation of pilot reuse factor and access point (AP) density for a given number of antennas at each AP and number of users. It is observed that the maximum energy efficiency of 5.2362 Mbit/Joule is achieved at the AP density of 29 and pilot reuse factor of 4 with PMMSE receive combining. In the end, the role of energy efficiency and area throughput tradeoff on the system performance is also evaluated, which suggests that both the energy efficiency and area throughput can be jointly increased until maximum energy efficiency is reached at a point.