A Flexible and Future-Proof Power Model for Cellular Base Stations

The power efficiency of cellular base stations is a crucial element to maintain sustainability of future mobile networks. To investigate future network concepts, a good power model is required which is highly flexible to evaluate the diversity of power saving options. This paper presents an advanced power model which supports a broad range of network scenarios and base station types, features and configurations. In addition to the power consumption, the model also provides values on the hardware sleep capabilities (sleep depths, transition times, power savings). The paper also discusses the technology trends and scaling factors which are used to predict the power consumption of base stations up to the year 2020. Two use cases are described, illustrating the power savings over different sleep depths, and quantifying the power consumption evolution over different technology generations.