Power consumption modeling in optical multilayer networks

The evaluation of and reduction in energy consumption of backbone telecommunication networks has been a popular subject of academic research for the last decade. A critical parameter in these studies is the power consumption of the individual network devices. It appears that across different studies, a wide range of power values for similar equipment is used. This is a result of the scattered and limited availability of power values for optical multilayer network equipment. We propose reference power consumption values for Internet protocol/multiprotocol label switching, Ethernet, optical transport networking and wavelength division multiplexing equipment. In addition we present a simplified analytical power consumption model that can be used for large networks where simulation is computationally expensive or unfeasible. For illustration and evaluation purpose, we apply both calculation approaches to a case study, which includes an optical bypass scenario. Our results show that the analytical model approximates the simulation result to over 90% or higher and that optical bypass potentially can save up to 50% of power over a non-bypass scenario

Towards a deployment tool for wireless access networks with minimal power consumption

The power consumption of wireless access networks will become an important issue in the coming years. In this paper, the power consumption of base stations for mobile WiMAX, HSPA, and LTE is modelled. This power consumption is related to the coverage of the base station. The considered technologies are compared according to their energy efficiency for different bit rates at a bandwidth of 5 MHz. For this particular case and based on the assumptions of parameters of the specifications, HSPA is the least energy-efficient technology. Until a bit rate of 11 Mbps LTE is the most energy-efficient while for higher bit rates mobile WiMAX performs the best. Furthermore the influence of MIMO is investigated. A decrease of about 80% for mobile WiMAX and about 74% for HSPA and LTE for the power consumption per covered area is found for a 4*4 MIMO system compared to a SISO system. The introduction of MIMO has thus a positive influence on the energy efficiency of the considered technologies. The power consumption and coverage model for base stations is then used to develop a prediction tool for power consumption in wireless access networks

Evaluation of the potential for energy saving in macrocell and femtocell networks using a heuristic introducing sleep modes in base stations

In mobile technologies two trends are competing. On the one hand, the mobile access network requires optimisation in energy consumption. On the other hand, data volumes and required bit rates are rapidly increasing. The latter trend requires the deployment of more dense mobile access networks as the higher bit rates are available at shorter distance from the base station. In order to improve the energy efficiency, the introduction of sleep modes is required. We derive a heuristic which allows establishing a baseline of active base station fractions in order to be able to evaluate mobile access network designs. We demonstrate that sleep modes can lead to significant improvements in energy efficiency and act as an enabler for femtocell deployments