Page 10 - EngineerIT April 2022

ICT 5G

Breaking energy utilisation with 5G

By Ayub Osman - Head of sustainability and corporate responsibility at Ericsson Middle East and Africa

rom self-driving cars that This is unsustainable in terms of cost as well as environmental impact.
communicate with one another, Historically, the launch of each successive generation of mobile technology came with
Fto remote healthcare which treats new services that required extended coverage for more people and places. At the same
patients from the comfort of their homes, time, building networks that supported the demand for new services has resulted in a
to an immersive virtual and augmented corresponding rise in energy consumption. As we continue to deploy 5G, there is a pressing
reality, which lets users experience need to secure the network’s total energy performance as it expands on new capabilities
learning and gaming in an entirely new such as increased gigabit speeds and low latency.
way, 5G comes with a promise to create a So, can we roll out 5G while reducing energy consumption? The answer is yes. Today, it is
never-before-seen world for people and truly possible to lower total mobile network energy consumption while meeting the massive
businesses. traffic growth challenge.
While the promise of 5G will transform In our report, ‘Breaking the energy curve’, we highlight the savings that can be achieved
the world as we know it, a big question through a new innovative approach. To break the energy curve, it is necessary to address all
that the industry experts currently grapple different parts of the network holistically. Communication service providers can start their
with, is 5G’s roll out and its subsequent energy savings by taking the first step towards ingraining energy performance targets into
energy consumption. their organisation and processes. Ericsson is already helping service providers address the
Today, from both cost and carbon energy and carbon emissions challenge, by developing innovative solutions that will enable
footprint perspectives, energy is one of them to meet current and future network demands.
the telecommunication industry’s biggest
challenges. Ericsson estimates the annual Network hardware modernisation with 5G
global energy cost for running mobile Energy performance is one of the key requirements for 5G, with the 5G network being up
networks to be about USD 25 billion. If 5G to ten times faster than 4G. By modernising the network with the latest technology and
is deployed in the same way as its previous replacing old equipment, it is possible to realise new business opportunities and at the same
generations to meet increasing traffic time, create significant energy savings. Bearing this in mind, the 5G standard now includes
demands, then energy consumption in ultra-lean design and Massive MIMO which are critical technical enablers for better energy
mobile networks will increase dramatically. performance.

EngineerIT | April 2022 | 8