China Mobile and ZTE Launch AI-Driven Green Telco Cloud

ZTE announced that in partnership with China Mobile it has launched an AI-Driven Green Telco Cloud solution with diverse hardware architectures. This solution leverages their exploration and experience in telco network energy-saving technologies, focusing on   the application of artificial intelligence to enhance energy efficiency in telco cloud environments.

This solution employs the industry's most advanced deep neural network models to monitor and analyze key parameters such as servers load and network traffic in near real-time, capable of instantly identifying and deciding the optimal computing requirements based on network load or tidal load. Through energy-saving measures such as CPU frequency adjustment and CPU sleeping, it adjusts the use of computing resources automatically, intelligently, and accurately. Without affecting the stable operation of equipment and user experience, it achieves a green transformation and upgrading of the entire chain from infrastructure, telco network elements to operations and maintenance.

Currently, actively addressing climate warming and promoting sustainable development has become a global consensus. Industries are making efforts and practicing according to their own characteristics to help the world move towards dual-carbon and net-zero goals. The communication network is no exception. Whether it is the definition of the next-generation network by industry standard organizations or the construction planning of networks by operators, green, low-carbon, and energy-saving are among the key objectives.

With the large-scale commercial use of 4G and 5G in the world, the deployment of a large number of base stations, big data centers, and edge data centers, the continuous growth of network traffic, and the increase of energy consumption, the green transformation of 4G and 5G networks and applications is urgent. According to an analysis from the report "The carbon-neutral mobile network" by GSMA Intelligence, in operators' mobile networks, the energy consumption of telco clouds, including core networks and data centers, accounts for approximately 22%, second only to wireless base stations. The energy consumption issue of telco clouds is increasingly gaining attention.  

Recently, in the live network verification of China Mobile's Anhui Branch and Hunan Branch, the AI-Driven Green Telco Cloud with Diverse Hardware Architectures solution has demonstrated remarkable energy-saving effects within the ARM telecom cloud resource pool environment, building upon earlier energy-saving verification in the X86 server resource pool. It has achieved precise control over the energy consumption of core network elements, with the highest single-machine energy-saving ratio reaching up to 25%. 

When rolled out across the entire China Mobile network, it can generate significant economic benefits, specifically including:

It can also generate significant social value:

Additionally, by conducting energy-saving verification on live commercial 4G/5G networks, we achieved zero call loss in communication network services, ensuring that wireless terminal users remain unaffected and their service experience is not compromised. There was no impact on surrounding equipment and systems, which is fully in line with the goals of the solution.

The collaboration between China Mobile and ZTE fully demonstrates the commitment of both parties to technological innovation and social responsibility. Moving forward, the two companies will continue to deepen their cooperation, continuously optimizing and improving telco cloud green energy-saving technologies, and expanding the application areas covered by these green energy-saving technologies to jointly promote the development of the communications industry towards a greener and more sustainable direction.

Source: ZTE media announcement