PRESS RELEASE: During MWC Barcelona 2022, Daisy Zhu, Vice President of Huawei Wireless Network Marketing, delivered a keynote speech Optimal Network Performance and Energy Efficiency are Critical for 5Gigaverse & 5Green at the GSMA Conference: Energy Efficiency Trends in 5G. “The global 5G industry is developing rapidly. More than 200 networks have been built, serving over 600 million users. As user demands continue to grow and mobile networks further develop, multi-band and multi-RAT networks will be inevitable. Huawei will continue to develop innovative solutions that can help operators reduce network energy consumption without adversely affecting the performance,” said Daisy Zhu.

A high-quality network is the foundation for operators’ business success.

Since 5G was put into commercial use, mid-band, large-bandwidth, and Massive MIMO technologies have multiplied the user-perceived rate by tenfold and greatly reduced the network costs per bit, achieving a positive business cycle for 5G. These 5G technologies can also effectively increase cell capacity to cope with the increasing traffic, laying a solid foundation for a high-quality 5G network.

Huawei provides innovative energy-saving solutions to meet the requirements of various services.

“Operators face challenges in reducing energy consumption in multi-band and multi-RAT network evolution. Huawei provides innovative energy-saving solutions in three aspects based on deployment scenarios and modes to meet the requirements of various services,” said Daisy Zhu.

“Continuous evolution to green base stations is required. For TDD spectrums featuring weaker coverage than that of low frequency bands, Huawei’s MetaAAU made breakthroughs in performance and energy saving with the extremely large antenna array (ELAA). It doubles the number of antenna elements to 384, slashes energy consumption by 30%, and delivers better user experience at the cell edge with the same coverage.

For discrete FDD spectrum, Huawei developed the industry’s first ultra-wideband RRU, which can deliver the same capabilities as combining three conventional RRUs, achieving dynamic power sharing among bands and reducing energy consumption by 30%. In addition, high-efficiency antennas that support signal direct injection feeding (SDIF) reduce the power consumption of RRUs by 15% without affecting coverage.

In terms of site architectures, the evolution from D-RAN to C-RAN can effectively improve the network-wide energy efficiency. Centralized deployment of BBUs in the C-RAN architecture eliminates the need for equipment rooms and air conditioners, simplifying remote sites and reducing network energy consumption by more than 30%.

Intelligent networks are also critical for green innovation. Huawei unveiled IntelligentRAN, its new wireless network architecture, at MWC 2022. This architecture can bring intelligence into network services, experience, and O&M. Intelligent energy-saving can decrease energy consumption by over 25% while ensuring user experience in multi-band and multi-RAT scenarios.

Including coverage and experience into energy efficiency assessments will provide a ‘yardstick’ for measuring both network performance and energy efficiency.

“As the scale and development speed of networks vary, it is impossible to evaluate the energy-efficiency level of a network based on its absolute energy consumption. The ICT industry has then moved its focus from energy consumption to energy efficiency, calling for green development of the communications industry.

Based on the bit/J energy efficiency, Huawei is working with operators and industry organizations to define multi-dimensional energy efficiency based on coverage and experience, to help operators manage the processes of carbon emission reduction and guide them in their development of networks with optimal performance and energy efficiency. In this way, operators can expand their services while reducing carbon emissions.” said Daisy Zhu.

Ensuring network performance and energy efficiency is crucial for 5G to increase carbon handprint.

“We also promote low-carbon social development with digital technologies such as 5G and IoT, helping industries with high carbon emissions go greener, effectively preventing and controlling pollution, and integrating resources to improve energy efficiency and reduce emissions.

China Mobile, for example, has reduced CO2 emissions by more than 800 million tons in the past five years. As 5G further develops, we will continue to work with global operators in the quest of sustainable and low-carbon development.”

Daisy Zhu said: “Going green is the future. We hope to work with global industry partners to continuously innovate and promote green solutions and multi-dimensional energy efficiency in commercial networks, and help operators build networks with optimal performance and energy efficiency, to promote industrial digitalization and low-carbon social development with 5G.”