Industry prospects of green communication base stations

This study presents an overview of sustainable and green cellular base stations (BSs), which account for most of the energy consumed in cellular networks. We review the architecture of the BS and the power consumption model, and then summarize the trends in green cellular network research over the past decade.

These strategies use bidirectional energy flow to reshape the non-uniform energy supplies and energy demands over mobile networks. A joint spectrum and energy sharing method is presented in Guo et al. (2014b) between cellular base stations to minimize the OPEX.

However, due to their high radio frequency and limited coverage, the construction and operation of 5G base stations can lead to significant energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. To address this challenge, scholars have focused on developing sustainable 5G base stations.

This paper develops a method to consider the multi-objective cooperative optimization operation of 5G communication base stations and Active Distribution Network (ADN) and constructs a description model for the operational flexibility of 5G communication base stations.

We linked these provincial base stations with provincial Gross Domestic Product (GDP), population (POP), and big data development level (BDDL) and established a statistical model to predict 5G base stations by 2030. The model predicted 2–5 million 5G base stations by 2030, considerably lower than the business-projected base station number.

Overall, 5G communication base stations' energy consumption comprises static and dynamic power consumption . Among them, static power consumption pertains to the reduction in energy required in 5G communication base stations that remains constant regardless of service load or output transmission power.