  In the landscape of next-generation cellular networks, a projected surge of
over 12 billion subscriptions foreshadows a considerable upswing in the
network's overall energy consumption. The proliferation of User Equipment (UE)
drives this energy demand, urging 5G deployments to seek more energy-efficient
methodologies. In this work, we propose SmartMME, as a pivotal solution aimed
at optimizing Base Station (BS) energy usage. By harnessing and analyzing
critical network states-such as UE connections, data traffic at individual UEs,
and other pertinent metrics-our methodology intelligently orchestrates the BS's
power states, making informed decisions on when to activate or deactivate the
BS. This meticulous approach significantly curtails the network's overall
energy consumption. In a bid to validate its efficiency, we seamlessly
integrated our module into Network Simulator-3 (ns-3), conducting extensive
testing to demonstrate its prowess in effectively managing and reducing net
energy consumption. As advocates of collaborative progress, we've opted to
open-source this module, inviting the engagement and feedback of the wider
research community on GitHub.
