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The role of autonomous networks in cutting costs and carbon emissions

This Catalyst explores how autonomous network capabilities can help communications service providers conserve energy across infrastructure, training and enterprise applications via intelligent operations and maintenance

Alasdair Riggs
11 Oct 2022
The role of autonomous networks in cutting costs and carbon emissions

The role of autonomous networks in cutting costs and carbon emissions

The ability of autonomous networks (AN) to slash CSPs’ energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions is increasingly apparent, with a recent pilot by China Mobile saving 475 million kWh of electricity and reducing carbon emissions by 373,000 tons over the past year. The CSP now plans to replicate the energy saving measures across its entire network in pursuit of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

China Mobile’s new automatic and intelligent operation and maintenance (O&M) capabilities underpin the Green 5G Catalyst, which is applying AN capabilities to save energy across three layers: telecoms infrastructure (5G base stations, transmission devices, slicing packet network devices, and data centers), AN-based eastern data and western training, and enterprise network applications.

Following evaluation based on TM Forum's AN concept, some of China Mobile’s 31 subsidiaries and XL Axiata are now piloting these capabilities. China Mobile Henan and Beijing and XL Axiata for instance are working with Huawei to use AI to stagger electricity usage and deploy “intelligent lithium battery technology” in 5G base stations. The innovation has reduced energy consumption on a single site by 10% and annual electricity consumption by 900 kWh. Meanwhile, China Mobile Guangdong, ZTE and Huawei have developed a solution that uses AI to forecast network traffic trends, determine the optimal energy-saving policy, and then dynamically hibernate and wake up devices. The solution is designed to reduce power consumption by 15% and saves about 3,000 kWh per year for each device.

China Mobile Jiangsu and Huawei have introduced optical cross-connect (OXC) technology, which employs ultra-high photonic integrated components to lower energy consumption at core nodes by 45%. A single site can save about 35,000 kWh of electricity per year. China Mobile Jiangsu has upgraded the 34 core nodes that cover all backbone networks in Jiangsu province, and XL Axiata also plans to introduce OXC technology into its network. China Mobile Zhejiang meanwhile, in the east of China, is transferring AI training datasets to data centers in Shan’xi (in the west of the country) powered by renewable energy – the results are then sent back to Zhejiang for AI inference after training is completed. By offloading energy-intensive machine learning processes to Shanxi, this solution is able to reduce power costs by 30% and save up to 8 GWh of electricity every year. Working with Nokia, Zhejiang Mobile has also created an intelligent temperature control model for its machine room.

China Mobile is now using AI to help customers reduce their energy usage, too: China Mobile Fujian and Huawei have enabled battery maker CATL to use AI to control more than 4,000 production devices, thereby implementing robotic inspection and intelligent logistics. With energy consumption information being collected in real time, the self-optimizing solution reduces the need for manual interventions, improves device utilization, and cuts carbon emissions by 2,566 tons per year. In future, the CSP plans to employ dispersed backup batteries to build a "virtual power plant" and use AI to remotely schedule charging and discharging, to achieve peak load shaving.

Yao Yuan, project manager at China Mobile and Project Champion for the Green 5G Catalyst, says each of these AN capabilities can be easily referenced and replicated. “CSPs around the world can refer to and learn from China Mobile's energy-saving practices,” he adds. “Together, we will help achieve the energy-saving and low-carbon targets of the UN's SDGs.” The success of this project stands to make a significant contribution to the industry’s efforts to achieve sustainability and will be of particular interest to CSPs looking to slash both their overheads and environmental impact in the years ahead.


Lear more here about how TM Forum supports its members in enabling sustainability impact across the telecoms industry.