How will 5G impact telcos' carbon footprint?
If countries attending the United Nations COP26 conference fail to set and meet ambitious commitments to keeping global temperature rises in check then they could rise to 2.7 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century, according to the UNFCCC. As greater data traffic drives up telecom industry CO2 emissions, what can communication service providers (CSPs) do to clean up their contribution?
11 Nov 2021
How will 5G impact telcos' carbon footprint?
If countries attending the United Nations COP26 conference fail to meet ambitious climate change commitments, then global temperatures could increase to 2.7 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century, according to UNFCCC. As greater data traffic drives up telecom industry CO2 emissions, what can communications service providers (CSPs) do to clean up their performance?
Boston Consulting Group (BCG) reports that although today the ICT sector is responsible for between 3% and 4% of global CO2 emissions, fast growth in global data traffic means this figure could reach 14% by 2040, unless the industry takes significant steps to address its environmental impact.
Currently, the ICT and communications sectors are not the worst offenders, according to a Net Zero Tracker created by MSCI, which provides decision support tools and services to global investors.
Boston Consulting Group (BCG) reports that although today the ICT sector is responsible for between 3% and 4% of global CO2 emissions, fast growth in global data traffic means this figure could reach 14% by 2040, unless the industry takes significant steps to address its environmental impact.
Currently, the ICT and communications sectors are not the worst offenders, according to a Net Zero Tracker created by MSCI, which provides decision support tools and services to global investors.
Indeed, some telcos have been good at reporting their emissions. Deutsche Telekom topped MSCI’s list of the 15 largest listed companies by market capitalization "that reported additional scopes or categories of greenhouse gas emissions in the 12 months that ended August 31, 2021". The companies that made the list have made substantial strides in reporting their emissions across all emissions scopes.
CSPs are also eyeing the opportunity to help sectors such as energy, manufacturing and mining bring their own emissions under control by using smart, 5G-based technology to reduce waste and energy consumption.
Yet, as BCG's figures indicate, the more data that CSPs transport, the more their own emissions performance will suffer, particularly since one of the major issues for CSPs is the use of energy to power their networks.
5G network design has made several improvements in energy efficiency compared to previous network standards including when it comes to control messaging and signaling and the ability to use sleep mode based on traffic and load conditions. Nevertheless, the industry needs to do more, according to a recent report on network energy efficiency by NGMN.
One problem is that although 5G network design improves bit/joule power consumption, it is likely to use more power than a 4G one when covering a similar area, because of the use of a greater density of base stations in higher frequencies, according to NGMN. As a result, the industry will need to deploy a full range of power and site optimization techniques in current and future networks if it is to bring increases in power consumption under control.
“Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), their partners, and the entire ecosystem will not achieve the sustainability targets, without an end-to-end collaborative, committed and orchestrated effort,” states the NGMN report.
The power-hungriest elements of the network are the radio base stations, which NGMN says consume approximately 57 percent of energy. The report cites a study by three European universities, which concluded that for a converged operator, “the RAN could account for around 50% of its total network energy consumption across fixed and mobile networks in 2025.”
There are a number of measures that can help, according to NGMN, including “intelligent and dynamic orchestration, programmability, lifecycle management, and full automation,” which are facilitated by 5G’s granular architecture, “and increasing disaggregation and cloud native architecture and operation, with virtualization and softwarization, increase[ing] agility and reduc[ing] footprint.”
Server virtualization, for example, enables the optimal scheduling of workloads, meaning CSPS can increase energy efficiency by consolidating workloads onto a reduced number of CPUs, according to the report. It states that “studies have shown that network power consumptions are reduced by 22% and 17% respectively by virtualizing the EPC and RAN.”
Nonetheless, it is early days for 5G and both operators and society still lack visibility on its full environmental impact.
UK5G has set up a working group to identify the positive and negative environmental consequences of 5G, including how 5G can reduce energy consumption in applications where CO2 emissions are high. The group believes that the communications industry – and potential users – need more data.
“There’s just not enough information out there about 5G, about how it could deliver positive benefits and about the negative,” according to Sarah Peake, Content Curation Manager at The Eden Project, which is one of the UK’s 5G testbeds and trial programs.
The group also called to improve how the industry quantifies the energy efficiency and energy consumption of 5G networks.
“Metrics frameworks need enhancing, and models to predict energy consumption and methods to measure energy consumption also need to be enhanced and made contemporary,” according to Professor Timothy O’Farrell, Chair in Wireless Communication of the Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering at The University of Sheffield in a release.
He also calls for more work on designing in energy efficiency.
“This is a continuing challenge, as there is no underpinning theory of how to design energy efficiency networks with low energy consumption,” according to O’ Farrell.
CSPs are also eyeing the opportunity to help sectors such as energy, manufacturing and mining bring their own emissions under control by using smart, 5G-based technology to reduce waste and energy consumption.
Yet, as BCG's figures indicate, the more data that CSPs transport, the more their own emissions performance will suffer, particularly since one of the major issues for CSPs is the use of energy to power their networks.
5G network design has made several improvements in energy efficiency compared to previous network standards including when it comes to control messaging and signaling and the ability to use sleep mode based on traffic and load conditions. Nevertheless, the industry needs to do more, according to a recent report on network energy efficiency by NGMN.
One problem is that although 5G network design improves bit/joule power consumption, it is likely to use more power than a 4G one when covering a similar area, because of the use of a greater density of base stations in higher frequencies, according to NGMN. As a result, the industry will need to deploy a full range of power and site optimization techniques in current and future networks if it is to bring increases in power consumption under control.
“Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), their partners, and the entire ecosystem will not achieve the sustainability targets, without an end-to-end collaborative, committed and orchestrated effort,” states the NGMN report.
The power-hungriest elements of the network are the radio base stations, which NGMN says consume approximately 57 percent of energy. The report cites a study by three European universities, which concluded that for a converged operator, “the RAN could account for around 50% of its total network energy consumption across fixed and mobile networks in 2025.”
There are a number of measures that can help, according to NGMN, including “intelligent and dynamic orchestration, programmability, lifecycle management, and full automation,” which are facilitated by 5G’s granular architecture, “and increasing disaggregation and cloud native architecture and operation, with virtualization and softwarization, increase[ing] agility and reduc[ing] footprint.”
Server virtualization, for example, enables the optimal scheduling of workloads, meaning CSPS can increase energy efficiency by consolidating workloads onto a reduced number of CPUs, according to the report. It states that “studies have shown that network power consumptions are reduced by 22% and 17% respectively by virtualizing the EPC and RAN.”
Nonetheless, it is early days for 5G and both operators and society still lack visibility on its full environmental impact.
UK5G has set up a working group to identify the positive and negative environmental consequences of 5G, including how 5G can reduce energy consumption in applications where CO2 emissions are high. The group believes that the communications industry – and potential users – need more data.
“There’s just not enough information out there about 5G, about how it could deliver positive benefits and about the negative,” according to Sarah Peake, Content Curation Manager at The Eden Project, which is one of the UK’s 5G testbeds and trial programs.
The group also called to improve how the industry quantifies the energy efficiency and energy consumption of 5G networks.
“Metrics frameworks need enhancing, and models to predict energy consumption and methods to measure energy consumption also need to be enhanced and made contemporary,” according to Professor Timothy O’Farrell, Chair in Wireless Communication of the Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering at The University of Sheffield in a release.
He also calls for more work on designing in energy efficiency.
“This is a continuing challenge, as there is no underpinning theory of how to design energy efficiency networks with low energy consumption,” according to O’ Farrell.
