Evaluation and projection of 4G and 5G RAN energy footprints: the case of Belgium for 2020–2025

Energy consumption of mobile cellular communications is mainly due to base stations (BSs) that constitute radio access networks (RANs). 5G technologies are expected to improve the RAN energy efficiency while supporting the forecasted growth in data traffic. However, the evolution of the absolute RAN energy consumption with 5G deployment is not clear. Moreover, existing BS power models are mostly derived from legacy equipment. Therefore, this work presents a method to evaluate and to project the total energy consumption of broadband RANs. We use on-site up-to-date measurements to determine powe... Mehr ...