# Graph Attention Network for Optimal User Association in Wireless Networks

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.16347 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.16347/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 9 of its 13 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 22 May 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 9 of 9)

- [Graph Attention Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1710.10903/) (2017)
- [Inductive Representation Learning on Large Graphs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.02216/) (2017)
- [A Comprehensive Survey on Graph Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1901.00596/) (2019)
- [Optimal Wireless Resource Allocation with Random Edge Graph Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1909.01865/) (2019)
- [Graph Neural Networks for Scalable Radio Resource Management: Architecture Design and Theoretical Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.07632/) (2020)
- [Decentralized Inference with Graph Neural Networks in Wireless Communication Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.09027/) (2021)
- [Graph Neural Networks Meet Wireless Communications: Motivation, Applications, and Future Directions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.04047/) (2022)
- [Base Station ON-OFF Switching in 5G Wireless Networks: Approaches and Challenges](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1703.09875/) (2017)
- [First 20 Years of Green Radios](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.07696/) (2019)

## Abstract (arXiv)

With increased 5G deployments, network densification is higher than ever to support the exponentially high throughput requirements. However, this has meant a significant increase in energy consumption, leading to higher operational expenditure (OpEx) for network operators creating an acute need for improvements in network energy savings (NES). A key determinant of operational efficacy in cellular networks is the user association (UA) policy, as it affects critical aspects like spectral efficiency, load balancing etc. and therefore impacts the overall energy consumption of the network directly. Furthermore, with cellular network topologies lending themselves well to graphical abstractions, use of graphs in network optimization has gained significant prominence. In this work, we propose and analyze a graphical abstraction based optimization for UA in cellular networks to improve NES by determining when energy saving features like cell switch off can be activated. A comparison with legacy approaches establishes the superiority of the proposed approach.