Huawei to make 5G network greener

Upgrades to energy efficiency should be a key focus in the development of 5G products as the new generation communication network is being rolled out across the world, said executives of Huawei Technologies Co in Shanghai on Monday.

Ma Hongbo, president of Huawei's SingleRAN product line, said that the company has been working with telecommunication carriers in China and Europe to design standards and measurements of the energy efficiency of 5G networks, with the results slated to be published by the end of the year.

"We propose four trends and eight technological directions to achieve a green 5G network," said Ma at a media conference for the Global Mobile Broadband Forum 2021, which will be hosted by Huawei and its industry partners in Dubai from Oct 13-14.

"The signal transmitters and receivers will accommodate services spanning 2G to 5G, allowing the base station to be simplified and smaller, which reduces e-waste and carbon emission during production, deployment and operation," he said, adding that these equipment will be recyclable and environment-friendly throughout their lifespan.

Besides hardware, Huawei will also boost the energy efficiency of the 5G network through energy-saving software that can put devices and air conditioners in telecommunication stations in sleep mode when real-time traffic and capacity loads are low.

Ma said that the current air conditioning in the device room accounts for around one third of electricity consumption. In the future, the device room will consume less energy through circumstantial adjustments of the temperature — colder when devices are operating, and warmer when idle.

During the conference, Gan Bin, chief marketing officer of Huawei Wireless Product Line, also introduced the new features of the company's Massive MIMO technology, which can fully utilize unused space on current radio transmitter poles and achieve the same or even better signal coverage and transmission with lower energy consumption.