Reversing the Energy Trend in Mobile Networks:Equipment Replacement for Increased Capacity at a Fraction of the Energy

In order to meet the expected boost in mobile data traffic, mobile network operators are planning and upgrading the capacity of their networks. Through a previous study it has been shown that over a period of eight years, different network upgrade strategies have a different impact on the energy consumption and cost of the network. However, irrespective of the upgrade strategy, all lead to an overall increase in the energy consumption of the network. This is based on the assumption that all sites are equipped with the same version of the equipment. In reality, it is likely to find a variety of equipment generations at different base station sites. This paper extends the previous study by considering a realistic equipment replacement strategy. In addition to considering three equipment generations, a number of sites are also upgraded to remote radio head, which reduces the energy consumption even further. Results show, that over the evolution period, it is in fact possible to boost capacity while maintaining or even reducing the energy consumption of the network. For the macro-only upgrade case, a reduction of 9% is experienced between the first and the last year. For the joint macro-pico case, a reduction in energy consumption of 41% is noted. Such reductions are well in line with what mobile network operators are aiming at achieving over the next years

Realistic Energy Saving Potential of Sleep Mode for Existing and Future Mobile Networks

Abstract—This paper presents an extensive overview on an energy saving feature referred to as ‘site sleep mode’, designed for existing and future mobile broadband networks. In addition to providing a detailed understanding of the main concept, the paper also provides various studies and results to highlight potential savings, and emphasize some of the expected limitations. Since site measurements show that the energy consumption of base station sites is largely load-independent, this makes such a feature highly effective for reducing the energy consumption of mobile networks during hours of low traffic. After going through a number of different alternatives of the feature, this is applied to different network topologies, macro-only based networks, and a set of heterogeneous networks that employ the use of small cells in traffic hotspots. Results obtained through detailed case studies show that sleep mode can reduce the average daily energy consumption of a network by around 30%. This can be achieved while maintaining a predefined level of performance, used as a measure of comparing different scenarios. Index Terms—sleep mode, energy efficiency, case study, HSPA, LTE, base station, energy model, power model, heterogeneous network, femtocells, picocells I

SooGREEN: Service-oriented optimization of Green mobile networks

International audienceToday, mobile networks are witnessing an exponential growth of traffic volumes, linked to new services, especially for smart cities and smart-grid. The European Celtic-Plus SooGREEN project, started mid 2015, is targeting to reduce the energy consumption of the services in different mobile architectures in interaction with smart-grid. SooGREEN is focused on the services energy consumption modelling and measurement, the dynamic optimization of the mobile access network and of the content delivery, the design of an Energy Efficient Virtualized and Centralized Radio Access Network (RAN), and the bi-directional interaction of the mobile network with the smart-grid. This paper presents insight into the project after its first year, and discusses research trends in green communication networks for the future