4 FAQs about Base station power consumption in the 5G era

How much energy does a 5G base station consume?

Because it is estimated that in 5G, the base station's density is expected to exceed 40–50 BSs/ Km 2 . The energy consumption of the 5G network is driving attention and many world-leading network operators have launched alerts about the increased power consumption of the 5G mobile infrastructure .

Are 5 G base stations energy efficient?

However, the construction and operation of 5 G base stations face significant energy consumption challenges. Under full-load conditions, the power consumption of 5 G base stations is approximately 3–4 times that of 4 G base stations, which has a notable impact on energy consumption and environmental concerns (Zhang et al., 2020, Feng et al., 2012).

Can 3GPP reduce base station energy consumption in 5G NR BS?

Aiming at minimizing the base station (BS) energy consumption under low and medium load scenarios, the 3GPP recently completed a Release 18 study on energy saving techniques for 5G NR BSs . A broad range of techniques was evaluated in terms of the obtained network energy saving (NES) gain and their impact to the user-perceived throughput (UPT).

Why is energy consumption growth important for 5G mobile network infrastructure?

Energy consumption growth of the fifth-generation (5G) mobile network infrastructure can be significant due to the increased traffic demand for a massive number of end-users with increasing traffic volume, user density, and data rate.

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