Zero Traffic, Zero Watts
Dell News, Tuesday, February 13th, 2024
We have arrived at the intersection of sustainability, energy consumption and modern (4G/5G) telecommunications networks.
Let's take stock of where we are. We explored sustainability at the edge. Now we arrive at the intersection of sustainability, energy consumption and modern (4G/5G) telecommunications networks. Network energy consumption is directly tied to sustainability and is among the most significant contributing factors to total cost of ownership (TCO). According to GSMA research, the Radio Access Network (RAN) consumes approximately 73% of the total network energy. The rollout of 5G is poised to increase data consumption by an order of magnitude over today, and this increase will require more investment in infrastructure and, by extension, energy to carry that network traffic.