Rethinking needed to minimize cost for radio sites
Today, some 25 years after the introduction of the first mass-market mobile phones, you might think that core, transmission and radio network equipment have become commodity items. However, while equipment is quite mature and readily available from many suppliers, it’s still true that total network solutions are greater than the sum of their parts. Optimizing solutions for minimum Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) involves rethinking the entire design, and engineering each component to contribute optimally to the overall equation. Merely combining the best or cheapest components in a package does not necessarily produce the best results.
In the radio network, for example, as well as the radio base station (RBS) and transmission equipment, the typical radio site today also includes battery back-up units (BBUs), air conditioning equipment to secure battery lifetime, and diesel generators to charge the batteries during longer power disruptions or where direct connection to the electricity grid is impossible. The relative energy consumption of the various components at an RBS site is shown in the figure.
Read more how this is achieved in the White Paper Sustainable energy use in mobile communications.
White paper: Energy Sustainability in mobile networks
Startpage Energy optimized network Site optimization Alternative energy sources
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