Green 5G: how to make 5G more energy-efficient

According to Nokia, mobile networks’ annual energy consumption worldwide represents 72 billion EUR.

5G will alter usages and increase the networks’ overall consumption.

Even though 5G delivers greater mobile data transmission capacity, it comes as the result of increased use of different frequency bands which, in turn, leads to increased energy consumption.

There are nevertheless solutions for optimising the systems’ energy use. These include adopting 5G sleep modes and implementing them on the networks, replacing old infrastructures and improving massive MIMO systems, which will lower a 5G tower’s consumption to only 50% more than a 4G antenna, and even down to only 25% more in 2022 (according to forecasts).

The computing power needed for the signal management required by 5G will also demand slightly increased use of artificial intelligence.

But the future use of these solutions will depend heavily on telecom industry players’ proactive adoption and strategies. Equipment suppliers have a central role to play here in educating operators on best practices for achieving a greener 5G environment.

There are also ways for suppliers to stand out from the competition in the 5G era. Such as designing their own chipsets and in their use of AI. But very few vendors today are in a position to do so.

Some equipment suppliers are currently reporting that they are 20% more energy efficient than the competition. Most have invested in R&D to tackle these issues, and are forging partnerships with chipset-makers. Operators, meanwhile, need to adopt these solutions and innovations being made available by equipment suppliers to guarantee more environmentally-friendly 5G. For some operators, the top priority was getting a jump on the market, choosing a rapid 5G rollout over a more energy-efficient once (at least initially), whereas others, such as Orange, are taking a more cautious approach, albeit one that takes environmental concerns more fully into consideration.

In its “Green 5G” report, IDATE DigiWorld analyses the ways in which environmental aspects are being taken into account in 5G rollouts. It identifies some dozen solutions for reducing and optimising energy consumption, examines the strategies of some 20 players and delivers a detailed analysis of a broad selection of these strategies.

Drop us a line, to find out more about our “Green 5G” report!

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