4 minute read
Breaking the Energy Curve: A three-step approach to achieving energy efficiency while scaling 5G
by Sashieka Seneviratne, Director of Sustainability, Networks, Ericsson
As the telecom industry evolves to meet the demands of the digital age, service providers face the challenge of managing network traffic, meeting user experience demands and monetizing their 5G investments. How can they address these needs while simultaneously prioritizing energy efficiency, producing cost savings and contributing to the global effort to reduce carbon emissions?
The importance of energy consumption in mobile networks
As the demand for mobile traffic keeps increasing, network capacity must also grow, leading to a subsequent rise in energy consumption. With energy bills accounting for 20-40% of operating expenses, operators face significant pressure to reduce energy consumption. Additionally, a considerable portion of operators have committed to net-zero targets by 2050 or earlier. Therefore, the effective management of mobile network energy consumption is crucial for higher capacity networks to be cost effective and sustainable.
Ericsson’s Breaking the Energy Curve framework demonstrates how a mobile network can be planned, built and operated with precision to be more energy-efficient, sustainable and cost effective—while extending the reach and benefits of 5G. The approach has been streamlined into three core elements.
1. Evolve to a sustainable network
Embrace a holistic vision for network planning and operation. It’s critical to have a long-term investment horizon in mind and plan for network evolution considering both business and sustainability targets. For instance, if sites have the potential for an increase in traffic load to support fixed wireless access (FWA) in the future, they can be deployed with Massive MIMO radios
that deliver data volume more efficiently and take advantage of government programs (e.g., Broadband Equity Access and Deployment [BEAD]), where the aim is to maximize the success of the USD 42 billion investment in closing the digital divide.
Meanwhile, operators can immediately reduce energy consumption by activating energy-saving software on their current install base. By using radio software features like Micro Sleep Tx, cell sleep mode, MIMO sleep, and deep sleep, significant energy savings can be achieved, with power consumption reduced by up to 97 percent in low or no traffic scenarios. Sites that carry low traffic volumes, such as rural sites, can leverage these sleep mode software features even more to enable significant energy savings while still delivering a very good user experience.
2. Expand and modernize
Modernize existing network while scaling up 5G. The key to reducing energy consumption is to speed up the migration from legacy technologies to 5G and modernize the network with the latest, most energy-efficient hardware. The radio access network (RAN) accounts for 75 percent of the network’s energy usage, so leveraging more efficient 5G hardware can lead to energy savings from better utilization of radio spectrum and enabling more efficient energy-saving algorithms. Upgrading existing 4G sites to 5G has the potential to realize increases of up to 10 times in capacity and to reduce energy consumption by more than 30 percent, offering the possibility to grow revenue and reduce OPEX while addressing sustainability.
3. Operate intelligently
Leverage artificial intelligence, machine learning and automation to boost energy savings. By implementing customized energy-saving actions based on traffic utilization predictions, operators can reduce costs with minimum network KPI impacts while maintaining a good user experience.
The bottom line
The key to solving the energy dilemma in mobile networks lies in migrating to 5G and leveraging software, hardware and energy orchestration solutions to optimize for energy while maintaining the user experience. By prioritizing sustainability and energy efficiency, mobile networks can evolve benefitting both the business and the environment.
