In 5G communications, base stations are large power consumers, and about 80% of energy consumption comes from widely dispersed base stations. It is predicted that by 2025, the communications industry will consume 20% of the world’s electricity.
The power consumption of 5G equipment is a serious challenge facing operators. At the same time, in the context of green and low-carbon development around the world, saving energy, reducing consumption, and improving network energy efficiency are the only way for the sustainable development of the mobile communications industry in the future. .
How to save energy and reduce consumption?
Recently, China Mobile released the “my country Mobile 5G Base Station Energy Saving Technology White Paper”, focusing on the three major technical areas of equipment level, site level, and network level energy saving, proposing corresponding technical requirements and usage scenarios, and striving to reduce power consumption on average every year in the past three years. More than 10%.
1. Equipment-level energy saving: new architecture, new materials, and new functions to achieve higher efficiency. Expand the use of liquid cooling, high power amplifier power, and high-integration equipment to achieve a year-by-year reduction in the power consumption of the entire machine.
2. Site-level energy saving: Basic energy-saving technology mainly closes some radio frequency channels through sub-frame shutdown, channel shutdown and deep sleep.
Basic energy-saving technology:
01
subframe off
In low-load scenarios, when no data is sent in the downlink subframe detected through the base station monitoring platform, radio frequency hardware such as power amplifiers are turned off to reduce static power consumption, and energy-saving actions can be achieved in microseconds. Laboratory tests show that the power consumption of the entire machine can be reduced by about 10%.
Schematic diagram of sub-frame shut-off technology scheme
02
Channel shutdown
Turn off/on in seconds. Outdoor macro stations achieve the purpose of reducing power consumption by closing (or sleeping) some of the radio frequency transmitting channels. This function is mainly deployed in 64-channel and 32-channel macro base station areas, and laboratory tests can save about 15% of energy consumption.
Schematic diagram of channel shutdown technology scheme
03
deep sleep
Activate in seconds. It is suitable for scenarios or periods when the 5G load is not high. It means that the base station turns off the AAU power amplifier, most radio frequency and digital channels, and only retains the most basic digital interface circuit, so that the AAU enters a deep sleep state to achieve the greatest reduction in power consumption.
Schematic diagram of deep sleep skill scheme
Enhanced energy-saving technology enhances energy saving through micro-site shutdown and downlink power optimization, intelligent energy saving and other methods.
Micro site shut down
It means that on the basis of deep sleep, by optimizing the network management alarm process and remote control, the AAU is further powered off and the macro base station carries all the workload, so as to save energy consumption and achieve zero transactions and zero power consumption. Basic energy saving can save 30%-70% of energy consumption, while micro station shutdown can save 100% of energy consumption, maximizing cost reduction and efficiency improvement.
3. Network-level energy saving: through multi-network cooperation energy-saving technology and multi-network cooperation hardware architecture technology.
How to better save energy and reduce consumption?
In addition to my country Mobile, my country Tower and the other two major operators have also announced “intelligent shutdown of 5G base stations”, which operates in a manner of “opening at peak times and shutting down and dormant at trough times” to achieve power saving.
How to better realize “intelligent closed 5G base station”?
In addition to software support, excellent intelligent shutdown hardware support is also required. GrenElec’s Chinese electrical talents are open to the public: a divine assist in energy saving and efficiency improvement of 5G base stations!
01
Seamless connection with FSU and operator energy-saving channels
It facilitates unified management and ensures information security.
02
Detect and upload real-time power data
The energy saving value can be expressed in real time.
03
Intelligent execution of instructions, microsecond level shutdown/enabling
Improve operation and maintenance efficiency and reduce operation and maintenance costs.
04
Maintain electricity safety
There are more than ten power safety warnings such as overcurrent and short circuit to protect the safety of power when the base station equipment is turned on and during operation.
01
Punctual strategic opening and closing
GrenElec’s intelligent air conditioner is embedded with MCU, clutch transmission mechanism, metering chip, data communication, high-precision sensors, etc., which can upload real-time data to the platform and instantly respond to the operator’s platform scheduled opening and closing strategies. IoT modules Supports mainstream wireless/wired communication methods, activates energy-saving strategies in as fast as 0.005 seconds, and opens and closes different branches at different times.
02
AI linkage opening and closing
The 5G base station energy-saving strategic plan combines 5G energy-saving with AI artificial intelligence to improve the prediction accuracy for each community and different time points. Through intelligent prediction algorithms, a refined power energy-saving strategy can be formulated. As a “brainy” miniature circuit breaker, GrenElec’s intelligent air circuit breaker can be customized and combined with operator channels to jointly create a new situation in energy saving for 5G base stations.
At present, GrenElec’s Chinese electrical intelligent air conditioning has launched pilot projects at multiple 5G base station sites. The smart circuit breaker supports seamless access to tower FSU equipment and operator channels, and supports the detection of mains power supply and oil generator power generation status (presence/absence) outside the base station.
How much electricity bill will be saved?
After the energy-saving strategy is switched on and off, the power consumption of the base station can be greatly saved. According to relevant data calculations, after the AAU deep sleep function is turned on for the whole time under no-load conditions, an AAU can save an average of 5 yuan in electricity bills per day. A base station generally consumes 3 AAU. Installation can save 15 yuan in one day. Based on a total of 400,000 5G base stations built at that time, it would save 6 million yuan a day, or at least 1.8 billion yuan a year. With the phased advancement of the construction plan, subsequent cost savings will become more and more considerable.
At present, many energy-saving measures have been introduced for 5G base stations. GrenElec’s intelligent air switches will help them achieve refined on-demand energy use. Through timed strategic switching, artificial intelligence switching, and intelligent switching of corresponding components, energy saving and reduction can be achieved. The purpose of consumption is to reduce equipment power consumption, reduce enterprise operating costs, and break the shackles of high electricity bills for the development of 5G base stations!
Keywords in this article: cost-effective 4G RTU, full network RTU
German 
English 
Russian 
Spanish 
Italian 
Portuguese 
French 
Dutch