Operators are developing innovative ways for improved performance in their BTS

Concerns about the rise in energy bills are being heard head across all
corridors in the telecom industry. As the cost of power and concern for the
environment increases, continuous innovation in energy saving techniques becomes
critical. Operators are continuously developing newer and innovative ways for
improved performance and lesser use of energy.

Network infrastructure vendors are striving to gain competitive advantage by
reducing the power requirements of their equipments or innovating products that
consume alternative sources of energy.

Star Hub launched Singapore's second solar-powered mobile base station (BTS),
following the successful deployment of Star Hub's first at Ubi last year. Since
their first deployment in August 2009, it saw a good reduction in energy
consumption by at least 58%; Star Hub's new base station has solar panels
supplying the BTS power needs during the day. On cloudy or rainy days, or at
night, the BTS will revert to using energy from the utility grid. A single BTS
using this solar solution will enable Star Hub to reduce its CO2 emissions by
about 2.5 tonnes on a yearly basis. Star Hub has also enhanced its mobile core
network with the latest technologies from Nokia Siemens Networks, resulting in a
reduction in power consumption of at least 40% in this area. Collectively, these
initiatives will save on an average more than 1,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions per
year.

The trend of green initiatives in the telecom sector is less obvious on the
base station side, where platforms are starting to commoditize, but Vodafone has
spotted the opportunity to steal a head start on rivals in key areas like rural
access, by collaborating with Huawei on developing new base stations with green
technology.

The two firms' jointly established Radio Mobile Innovation Center in Madrid,
which is a base station for rural access in emerging economies, called the Easy
GSM BTS. It reduces cost, complexity and power with an all-IP design and a very
compact format that can self-organize, and can be driven using solar power
alone. It also promises rapid deployment, radio self planning and self
optimization, and low power consumption. It weighs just 12 kg and provides IP
transmission and local switching, reducing transmission bandwidth.

Vodafone claims it has the same coverage and level of service as a
conventional macro base station. Such a product could be important in reducing
the cost and time to market of expansion in India and various African markets.
With traditional markets saturating, telecom companies need to intensify their
focus on emerging economies, but even these regions are under economic pressure
and are increasingly becoming competitive; so they also needs to expand with the
lowest possible capex and opex burden.

Nortel along with China Mobile conducted a trial that will help reduce radio
network power consumption in GSM networks and deliver significant energy and
cost savings for mobile operators.

Nortel Smart Power Management (SPM) software enables network operators to
switch-off radio network equipments dynamically, when there is no caller traffic
being processed by the system. This can provide up to 33% reduction in energy
consumption by reducing base transceiver station power consumption. This
feature-combined with other enhancements of Nortel's GSM technology-reportedly
makes Nortel GSM portfolio up to 50% more energy efficient than it was five
years ago. Along with that, SPM reduces network opex and CO2 emissions, while
simultaneously enhancing the operator's profitability for long run operations.

The SPM feature is now available as a simple software upgrade to Nortel GSM
radio base station equipment. Other enhancements recently made by Nortel to
increase the overall energy efficiency of its GSM portfolio include, hardware
improvements to increase power amplification efficiencies, and optimization of
BTS cooling systems.

Akanksha Singh

vadmail@cybermedia.co.in