  Endowed with context-awareness and proactive capabilities, caching users'
content locally at the edge of the network is able to cope with increasing data
traffic demand in 5G wireless networks. In this work, we focus on the energy
consumption aspects of cache-enabled wireless cellular networks, specifically
in terms of area power consumption (APC) and energy efficiency (EE). We assume
that both base stations (BSs) and mobile users are distributed according to
homogeneous Poisson point processes (PPPs) and we introduce a detailed power
model that takes into account caching. We study the conditions under which the
area power consumption is minimized with respect to BS transmit power, while
ensuring a certain quality of service (QoS) in terms of coverage probability.
Furthermore, we provide the optimal BS transmit power that maximizes the area
spectral efficiency per unit total power spent. The main takeaway of this paper
is that caching seems to be an energy efficient solution.
