Page 54 - European Energy Innovation - Winter 2016 publication

54 Winter 2016 European Energy Innovation

5G COMMUNICATION

Power Set to be Key

Battleground for 5G

By Mauro Boldi, ETSI, and Xiaobao Chen, 3GPP

Although energy efficiency such as indoor hotspots, and 50 Mbps total energy usage, including that of
was important in previous for everywhere under 5G coverage – existing legacy technologies. For this
generations of mobile and a far larger number of connected to happen, clearly the overall energy
communications standards, devices. Some estimates expect up to efficiency of the network has to improve
such as UMTS and LTE, far greater 50 billion in total, though most agree it substantially.
emphasis will be placed upon this will take several years before this level
as a key performance metric in the is reached. The volume of traffic will Reducing the ongoing operational
forthcoming 5G standard. With grow as a wider array of applications expenses of the network and
each new generation of mobile emerge that are reliant on elevated environmental footprint, such as CO2
communication technology, the data rates and the content that users emissions, will be among the main
energy consumed by the network has want to transfer over the network keeps motivations spurring operators to move
grown significantly, as the number of expanding. Increased use of video to 5G, and power consumption is a
subscribers and the level of carried streaming, plus new services such as key area where cost savings need to
data traffic have both continued to those based on augmented reality, be witnessed. As well as the benefits
rise, despite the consumption of the will contribute heavily to this. Further experienced by the operator, there is a
equipment being utilized actually down the line, industrial, automotive need to improve the user experience
decreasing slightly. If this dynamic was and medical applications are certain to too. The goal here will be to allow
to continue then migration to 5G would ramp up the data overheads still higher. smartphones to connect to the network
be difficult from both an economic and while managing to run for much longer
an ecological standpoint. Consequently, DATA GROWTH AND ENERGY USE periods between recharges – thereby
energy efficiency will be one of the Among the fundamental objectives offering greater convenience for
highest priorities for the 5G era. that have been defined for the 5G mobile subscribers.
standard is for the network’s data
Next generation networks will be capacity to go up 1,000 fold during MULTIPLE USE CASES
expected to support dramatically the course of the next decade. The One element that makes 5G quite
higher user experienced data rates – intention is to simultaneously achieve a different from previous mobile
up to 1 Gbps in some specific areas, 50% reduction in the global network’s generations is that its operational

Mauro Boldi (left) is vice-chairman of the EEPS (EE Eco Environmental Product Standards) group in the Energy Efficiency
Technical Committee. Xiaobao Chen (right) is the rapporteur of 3GPP SA

www.europeanenergyinnovation.eu