As 5G continues to evolve with future releases — notably 5G NR Rel 18 — more energy savings will be possible. This also includes new versions of Wi-Fi, with Wi-Fi 7 coming online this year, and new technologies such as network slicing, enabling more efficient use of existing spectrum and legacy networks.

When evaluating these new technologies, it is Important to emphasize that the success of these technologies isn't solely tied to their energy consumption, but also to their potential for energy savings, even in the most traditional sectors like agriculture.

One key factor to keep in mind is that assessing future energy consumption may not be a fair indicator. The energy demand is primarily driven by the increasing demand for advanced technologies. New technologies, however, come with a wealth of energy-efficient, self-optimizing features. Take, for example, the scenario of covering an outdoor parking lot: It could require hundreds of traditional Wi-Fi access points, but it could be more efficiently achieved with just a couple of small cells, demonstrating the inherent efficiency of newer technologies.

Embracing New Deployment Strategies

Beyond helping other industries reduce their environmental impact, the mobile ecosystem needs to take steps to mitigate the effects of our design and deployment practices related to sustainability. One enormous deployment decision that could significantly impact energy efficiency is the ongoing trend of over-provisioning in mobile networks. Both mobile operators and enterprises should ensure that they’re designing as efficiently as possible upfront. Moreover, these networks are dynamic environments that need to be periodically re-calibrated. Over-provisioning simply makes this more challenging while simultaneously adding to energy costs.

Another obvious choice can be to prioritize using renewable energy sources for data centers, smaller cell deployments, and other installations requiring significant energy. Many companies are investing in renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind power, to run their operations. This shift helps reduce the carbon footprint associated with energy consumption.

Complementing this choice might be the development of more sophisticated battery-based energy storage to augment our renewable energy sources with an uninterruptible power supply.

The move away from over-provisioning in mobile networks is a significant step towards enhanced energy efficiency. Efficient design and resource allocation, coupled with renewable energy sources and battery-based energy storage, can further minimize energy consumption in the telecom sector.

Other emerging strategies include a continued shift to virtualized infrastructure. Much as larger mobile operators leverage software-defined networks and cloud-native architectures, these trends set the foundation for additional energy-efficient technologies such as Open RAN solutions, Neutral-Host Networks, and others.

Other potential strategies could include reducing RAN energy consumption, reducing our industry’s overall land use footprint, and creating a circular economy to reduce e-waste, something our industry generates in large quantities.

Energy Efficiency & Sustainability as Part of Wireless Network Design

Aside from the use cases that mobile technologies enable, the global ecosystem is taking steps across multiple standards groups – the very organizations that define wireless technologies for the industry – to make sustainable practices a critical element in the development of future mobile networks. Organizations like the 3GPP, Next G Alliance, Wireless Broadband Alliance, and many others are working to build sustainability into today’s mobile infrastructure.

Many other organizations are also building sustainable practices into their planning for 6G and other future network technologies. It’s clear that, as an industry, we are at least beginning to take the threat of over consumption seriously.

These goals will take time to achieve. It will require dedication, sacrifice, and broad cross-industry collaboration. But as a wise person once said, focus on what you can control. At the very least, we have the opportunity to create new approaches, helping to address the impacts of this complex trend.