Powering mobile networks with green energy

Explosive mobile data demands are driving a significant growth in energy consumption in mobile networks, and consequently a surge of carbon footprints. Reducing carbon footprints is crucial in alleviating the direct impact of greenhouse gases on the earth environment and the climate change. With advances of green energy technologies, future mobile networks are expected to be powered by green energy to reduce their carbon footprints. This article provides an overview on the design and optimization of green energy enabled mobile networks, discusses the energy models for the analysis and optimization of the networks, and lays out basic design principles and research challenges on optimizing the green energy powered mobile networks.