Power efficiency model for mobile access network

Energy consumption of mobile access networks has recently received increased attention. Although cellular networks account for a rather small share of energy that is used by the ICT (Information and Communication Technology) sector, lowering their energy consumption appears important from an economical perspective. This paper recalls different means to enhance the capacity of evolved mobile networks and discuss the related challenges from energy consumption perspective; this discussion is followed by a simple radio network power usage model. Based on the model we give examples where two different deployment scenarios have been compared. The aim of the paper is to gain understanding on the power utilization in the radio operations of a base station network.