开放ran：能源效率工程

Open RAN: engineering for energy efficiency November 2023 INSIGHT SPOTLIGHT Open RAN is a network strategy with growing appeal, but stillonlyadoptedbyasmall proportion of operators and mostly on asmall scale. Despite this, there is a surprisingly strong vote ofconfidence in open RAN’s power efficiency. Little has been This Spotlight is part of a research series in partnership with Delland Intel on the use of edge compute and RAN as part of sustainability strategy. Following the publication ofThe nextgeneration of operator sustainability, we will be exploringindividual topics over the remainder of 2023 to detail how Analysis •Powering down:Software can be used to put the radio unitto sleep when not in use. While this can also be done withother RAN equipment from certain vendors, the Open RAN may not predominate now but will becomemore commonplace Open RAN has garnered much attention among mobileoperators. This reflects a desire to increase flexibility in how 5Gnetworks are run, to shift to cloud native and to reduce vendor •Adjusting capacity:Power usage can be reduced bylowering the throughput from massive MIMO equipment GSMA Intelligence survey data suggests only a small minorityof operators have deployed open RAN networks so far. Mostare on a small scale, perhaps 5–10% of sitesin a givencountry.Vodafone is one of the largest examples; it first trialled openRAN in several of its European and African businesses in 2019.It awarded its European-wide network tender (covering 100,000sites and 400 million people across 14 countries) in 2021 to •Automation:This is perhaps the most sophisticated aspectof energy management for open RAN. Software in the CUand DU can move operator workloads to under-utilised sitesin the network or between spectrum bands on a single site Collectively, these innovations play to the mantra of ‘zero bits,zerowatts’. As the RAN accounts for 75–80% of energyconsumption, the potential P&L impact is significant. A striking indication from the data, however, is that open RANdeployments will be adopted bya majority ofthe industry overtime. We view this as a complementary (rather than Better power consumption means lower costs What impact, if any, do you think open RAN will have on networkenergy efficiency compared to proprietary networks?(N=100) Energy accounts for a stubbornly high share of telecoms costs,at 20–40% of overall opex on average. Power costs are fallingslightly as oil prices decline but remain well above pre-pandemic levels, which means any efficiencies possible fromthe network will be extracted. Open RAN networks are still in Open RAN is constructed to disaggregate hardware andsoftware in the distributed unit (DU) and control units (CUs)respectively. From an energy perspective (and putting aside thefinancial benefits of having more vendor competition), this offers Implications Mobile operators Vendors •Zero bits, zero watts–Energy efficiency is not specific toopen RAN; it has become a priority across the board.However, the way energy savings have been architected intoopen RAN at the design stage by multiple operators–particularly in Europe and those running greenfield networks(Dish, Rakuten)–has provided a common template forvendors to work from. The central premise is ‘zero bits, zerowatts’, meaning energy is only spent when needed, reducing •Investing for lower energy costs–Energy costs, whichrange from 20–40% of opex for an average operator, areamong the ‘lowest hanging fruit’ for tapping efficiencies.Investing in the technology upgrades that can help bring aboutcost reductions is, of course, tough in a challenging macroenvironment. However, the potential P&L benefits aresignificant and long lasting. GSMA Intelligence modelling •Carving out a competitive advantage–Despite widespread recognition that net zero is a shift everyone will need tomake,most operators view their competitive positioning on sustainability as a weakness. In the US and Canada, forexample, 50% of operators think sustainability is still acompetitive weakness for them, compared to only 30% seeingit as a strength. Shifting this perception requires having theright products in place and being able to effectively marketthese as saleable assets. On a network level, sustainability is •Growing competition–Open RAN is most likely to existalongside traditional mobile networks rather than replacethem. The general shift towards virtualised mobile networks–whether that is called vRAN, softwarisation, O-RAN or openRAN–is the broad trend. For vendors, including RANproviders, hyperscalers, silicon makers, server suppliers andsystems integrators, this means interoperability willincreasingly be in demand. The effect on commoditised This research has been supported by our partners Dell Technologies and Intel. For more information and to learn more, check out:PowerEdge.Next for Telecom e-Guide | Telecom Infrastructure | Dell Technologies Info Hub Authors Related reading Tim Hatt, Head of Researc