Chinese vendor Huawei’s green 5G strategy aims to help carriers to build networks with high performance and energy saving at the same time, Daisy Zhu, VP of wireless marketing for Huawei, told RCR Wireless News.
“Green is the latest buzz word to make it into the core strategic lines of operators around the world. ICT is a tech-intensive and environment-friendly industry. At the same time, people and industries’ demand on mobile networks are increasing. We expect that by 2030, the DoU will reach over 600 Gbit/s and network traffic will increase by 100 times. Our green 5G strategy aims to help operators build a network with high performance and energy saving at the same time, which means that helping consumers upgrade their experience while making network more green. In addition, 5G as a digital infrastructure, help enable energy conservation and emission reduction in vertical industries,” Zhu said.
“We should leverage the role of ICT, especially 5G’s contribution to the carbon emission for society. GSMA concluded that ICT will have a tenfold positive impact, which means that one kWh of power consumed by mobile networks will lead to a 10 kWh reduction of electricity usage in society. By increasing connectivity, improving efficiency and impacting behavior change, mobile technologies, especially 5G, are helping avoid emissions,” the executive added.
Zhu also noted that IoT and AI can also be used in 5G network to reduce the network’s carbon emissions, and combined together with other vertical industries to improve the production efficiency, which will lead to a cut in carbon emissions.
The executive also explained that Huawei’s energy-saving solution PowerStar features strong capabilities to help operators strike a balance between energy saving and network performance. To date, more than 70 operators have brought this solution to their live networks. In China alone, 800,000 sites are already running this solution for a total of 400 million kWh in savings every year. “This year, we upgraded it to PowerStar2.0, introducing AI to BTS. This enables operators to double the energy-saving effect while retaining network performance. The commercial deployment of PowerStar2.0 in China’s central Hunan province shows a more than 25% decrease in energy consumption in the mobile networks,” Zhu said.
“As a vendor, our commitments are that we will keep innovation, providing innovative and greener products and solutions for operators to help operators build 5G networks and reduce carbon emissions,” she added.
In a previous white paper, Huawei and global research firm Analysys Mason, analyzed the role of 5G in increasing the energy efficiency of mobile broadband networks against the backdrop of skyrocketing demand for digital connections.
The white paper also explores how 5G will lead vertical industries into a sustainable digital world by boosting energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions.
“The rising use of technologies such as cloud computing and mobile connectivity supports new experiences in every aspect of business and personal life, but it is essential that these benefits can be delivered without any detrimental impact on the environment. National and international policies are targeting a dramatic increase in energy efficiency, and a sharp shift from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy such as solar, wind and water,” the white paper reads. “This will entail a completely new approach to energy use, which must be adopted by every industry and individual. This is where 5G is an important enabler.”
According to the white paper, “it is essential that the 5G expansion does not just enable new digital processes and use cases for many industries – it also needs to help transform their energy efficiency. This is a central goal for the 5G community in the 2020s. For instance, as part of the GSMA initiative, together with The Carbon Trust, more than 50 MNOs are now disclosing their carbon footprint, energy and GHG emissions via the internationally recognized CDP global disclosure system.”
The ability of modern networks to make other industries, not just telecoms, more energy efficient is known as the “enabling effect”. By increasing connectivity and efficiency and driving behavior change in all sectors, mobile networks help to avoid emissions.
“The 5G enabling effect arises from changes to processes and behavior, which are supported by a high-capacity, ubiquitous and low-latency 5G network. Together with virtualization, edge computing, AI-enabled analytics and cloud, 5G can help industries to implement new processes as an integral part of an energy efficiency program, by supporting the most efficient and flexible allocation of resources,” the white paper adds.
Huawei and Analysys Mason also noted that 5G will help to support rising data usage in a sustainable way as it will be capable of supporting a significant increase in data usage by many industry sectors, while simultaneously enabling those industries to increase their energy efficiency by operating more flexibly and efficiently.
