A case study on estimating future radio network energy consumption and CO2 emissions

In this paper we examine the potential impact on total network energy consumption and CO₂ emissions when LTE is introduced into an existing cellular network. We note that by replacing existing 2G or 3G hardware with modern equipment the energy consumption per node can be reduced by approximately 50% already today. Furthermore, based on power models from the EARTH project, we predict that this potential gain will continue to increase year by year. In the paper we show that it is possible to reduce the total network energy consumption by approximately 60% by 2020 compared to today, despite deploying LTE, if we modernize the existing legacy hardware at the same pace as LTE is rolled out. Vodafone has a CO₂ reduction target of reducing emissions by 50% in the mature market by 2020 compared to the reference year 2006/07, and this target appears to be realistic to reach.