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GREEN 5G – MOVING THE NEEDLE THROUGH BETTER INTEGRATION AND OPERATIONS
GREEN 5G – MOVING THE NEEDLE THROUGH BETTER INTEGRATION AND OPERATIONS

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Since the industrial revolution, the human race has leapt forward in every walk of life. However, while industrialization was a significant cornerstone for our civilization, it also unleashed a major threat to humankind, global warming. As per the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) study, the earth’s temperature rose by 0.85 degrees between 1880 and 2012, and GHG emissions reached a record high in 2018.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) globally contributes to ~ 2 % of total GHG emissions, hence, green in networks needs immediate attention. In this context, GSMA & ITU-T have been top advocates for sustainability and are working towards a zero carbon ICT by 2050. Furthermore, 3GPP has also defined measurable KPIs to quantify the energy efficiency of the network.

Wireless networks form a huge part of the overall deployed communication network, and with widespread 5G network expansion, it is essential to understand what green means for 5G. This article focuses on how 5G influences the green in networks with a focus on integration and operations.

What does green means in communication networks?

As many know, the emission calculation mathematically is a function of Activity Rate (AR), Emission Factor (EF) and ER (Overall Emission reduction efficiency). Therefore, to assess and reduce the emission, we must map this into attributes influencing the build and deployment of networks. The key factors for integration and operation include:

  1. Hardware infrastructure volume: The total volume of the hardware required to achieve a goal, e.g., coverage. It is evident that the lesser the footprint, the lower the emission.
  2. Energy efficiency of the hardware: The unit capability of hardware by which a goal can be achieved with lesser energy. e.g., low energy Radio Units.
  3. Premise design: The overall design of the datacentres, central offices, towers, base stations etc., where the equipment is hosted.
  4. Utilization of the hardware: How efficiently the hardware is used in the deployed state, e.g., the percentage of capacity utilized.
  5. Truck Roll/Repeated truck roll: The efficiency of the human factor for integration, deployment, and operations, e.g., number of times a field engineer must visit the site.

 

 The 5G impact

When 5G is introduced into the mix, the key areas of consideration for green in 5G include:

  1. The volume of RAN: The Radio Access Network (RAN) contributes to a huge volume of 5G infrastructure as it faces the access side. Hence, measures to optimize the RAN footprint are an important step towards green.
  2. Utilization of radio networks: The utilization of each RAN equipment needs to be assessed and optimized for a better green initiative.
  3. Cloud native design: The cloud native nature of 5G, containerized core and C-RAN should be maximized and effectively used.
  4. Construction for wireless: The construction of towers, base stations, central offices (CO) and datacentres (DCs) needs to ensure an optimal footprint and use green technologies.
  5. Drive test and other truck roll specific for 5G:  5G requires many field activities for green and brownfield deployments. The truck roll reduction is an important area that requires smart intervention.

 

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5G as an enabler for green

The alternate angle of looking at the impact of 5G on sustainability is the potential of 5G to reduce carbon emissions in other industries. The use cases enabled by 5G like RGV, drones and smart factories can hugely reduce carbon footprint in multiple industries like manufacturing, automotive, utilities, agriculture, and transport. Moreover, the future predicted use cases of 5G like tele robotics, teleporting, and metaverse can play a key role in a greener world.

Conclusion

It is quite alarming that the negligence over the last century has created a huge negative impact on the environment. However, in the last few years we have been actively trying to address it. There is significant buy-in from across the ecosystem, including the ICT sector. This article attempts to look at sustainability from an integrator’s perspective and explore improvement measures. While doing so, we tried to bring out certain key aspects which should be considered during the design, implementation, and operation of 5G networks. This underlines the role of an integrator in bringing about sustainable 5G networks.

Moreover, this will set a baseline for future 6G, where the THz frequency elements needs to be built and deployed with superior energy efficiency. In essence, just like how the planet belongs to all of us, so does its sustainability responsibility. If we accept that every player in the ecosystem has a role to play and bring that into practice, we can accelerate the journey towards carbon neutral 2050.

 

About the Authors 

  • Manjunath Kulkarni - Associate Vice President, Delivery Head, Network Services at Infosys. 

  • Sreekanth Sasidharan - Associate Vice President, Senior Principal Technology Architect at Infosys. 

     


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