Can the high power consumption of 5G base stations be solved

The power consumption of a single 5G station is 2.5 to 3.5 times higher than that of a single 4G station. The main factor behind this increase in 5G power consumption is the high power usage of the active antenna unit (AAU). Under a full workload, a single station uses nearly 3700W.

Although the absolute value of the power consumption of 5G base stations is increasing, their energy efficiency ratio is much lower than that of 4G stations. In other words, with the same power consumption, the network capacity of 5G will be as dozens of times larger than 4G, so the power consumption per bit is sharply reduced.

The main factor behind this increase in 5G power consumption is the high power usage of the active antenna unit (AAU). Under a full workload, a single station uses nearly 3700W. This necessitates a number of updates to existing networks, such as more powerful supplies and increased performance output from supporting facilities.

The explosive growth of mobile data traffic has resulted in a significant increase in the energy consumption of 5G base stations (BSs).

1. Introduction 5G base station (BS), as an important electrical load, has been growing rapidly in the number and density to cope with the exponential growth of mobile data traffic . It is predicted that by 2025, there will be about 13.1 million BSs in the world, and the BS energy consumption will reach 200 billion kWh .

The 5G BS power consumption mainly comes from the active antenna unit (AAU) and the base band unit (BBU), which respectively constitute BS dynamic and static power consumption. The AAU power consumption changes positively with the fluctuation of communication traffic, while the BBU power consumption remains basically unchanged, , .