Energy-Efficient Dual-Band Communication: How to Allocate Traffic to Sub-THz Carriers?

As 6G wireless networks transition toward sub-Terahertz (sub-THz) frequencies to satisfy extreme capacity demands, managing the trade-off between massive bandwidth and power consumption becomes a critical design challenge. In this paper, we investigate the fundamental energy efficiency (EE) limits of a dual-band base station site combining a coverage-oriented sub-6 GHz carrier with a capacity-oriented sub-THz carrier. By jointly optimizing hardware parameters and advanced sleep modes via activity factors, we identify four distinct operational regions that govern the EE-optimal behavior across the complete range of data rates. We derive closed-form analytical thresholds that dictate precisely when the sub-THz band should awaken from sleep and how to allocate traffic between the bands in that case. Our results demonstrate that utilizing the sub-THz band is EE-optimal when the power cost of the bandwidth-limited sub-6 GHz band surpasses the static power penalty of activating the sub-THz circuitry. Ultimately, this framework provides mathematically rigorous guidelines for power consumption minimization and sleep-mode management in future green networks.