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Making mobile more energy efficient
A new Ericsson white paper, Sustainable Energy Use in Mobile Communications, explores the impact of mobile communications and the steps needed to optimize future energy use.
September 13, 2007
Operators are keen to reduce energy consumption because energy expenditures are a large portion of operational expenditures -such as power, site rental, operational maintenance, transmission costs, spare part handling, support and training.
Erika Ernfors, marketing manager at Ericsson, explains: "The next wave of subscriber growth for operators will be in high-growth markets and towards lower income segments. This means it will be even more important for operators to be cost efficient in order to stay profitable. Buying cheaper equipment doesn't mean lower opex, so we are addressing operators' need to be profitable when addressing lower income customers."
Ericsson has extensive experience of life-cycle assessments, giving it understanding of where and how energy reductions can be made in radio networks. It has drawn on this experience to compile the information in the white paper.
Ericsson sees energy optimization in mobile communications as a three-step process. The first step is to dimension networks with as few equipment sites as possible yet still deliver the desired coverage, capacity and quality. The second is to optimize the energy efficiency of individual sites at the product and feature level. The third step is to continue research and development into the use of renewable energy sources.
Energy efficiency in radio equipment is a major area of product development. A main-remote solution, also known as tower-top-mounted radios, can reduce radio base station (RBS) energy consumption by two-thirds. With this solution, instead of all the RBS equipment being housed in a shelter on the ground, the main unit can be on a tower, eliminating both power loss from feeder cables and the need for cooling systems.
Standby mode is an example of energy optimization at the feature level. It allows part of the RBS to be put in stand-by mode during non-peak times, such as at night, when full capacity is not needed.
Solar power, wind power, fuel cells and biofuels are also all cost-effective alternative energy sources when sites are beyond the reach of an electricity grid or are in particularly remote locations. Significant reductions in network energy consumption mean alternative energy sources are now a realistic option.
Mobile telecom is already a relatively low-impact industry in terms of carbon dioxide emissions and primary energy use.
