How do base stations affect mobile cellular network power consumption?

Base stations represent the main contributor to the energy consumption of a mobile cellular network. Since traffic load in mobile networks significantly varies during a working or weekend day, it is important to quantify the influence of these variations on the base station power consumption.

Is there a direct relationship between base station traffic load and power consumption?

The real data in terms of the power consumption and traffic load have been obtained from continuous measurements performed on a fully operated base station site. Measurements show the existence of a direct relationship between base station traffic load and power consumption.

What is the largest energy consumer in a base station?

The largest energy consumer in the BS is the power amplifier, which has a share of around 65% of the total energy consumption . Of the other base station elements, significant energy consumers are: air conditioning (17.5%), digital signal processing (10%) and AC/DC conversion elements (7.5%) .

Why are base stations important in cellular communication?

Base stations are important in the cellular communication as it facilitate seamless communication between mobile devices and the network communication. The demand for efficient data transmission are increased as we are advancing towards new technologies such as 5G and other data intensive applications.

What is the impact of base stations?

The impact of the Base Stations comes from the combination of the power consumption of the equipment itself (up to 1500 Watts for a nowadays macro base station) multiplied by the number of deployed sites in a commercial network (e.g. more than 12000 in UK for a single operator).

Which base station elements consume the most energy?

Of the other base station elements, significant energy consumers are: air conditioning (17.5%), digital signal processing (10%) and AC/DC conversion elements (7.5%) . New research aimed at reducing energy consumption in the cellular access networks can be viewed in terms of three levels: component, link and network.