New technology developed at CityU saves at least 4.5% of energy in mobile networks

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A research project conducted by the Department of Electronic Engineering (EE) at City University of Hong Kong has developed technology that can optimise mobile network design and reduce the energy consumption of the base stations by a minimum of 4.5%.  If all the base stations in Hong Kong adopt this technology, the energy saved could be enough for at least 5,000 households per year as electricity.

Dr. Eric Wong Wing Ming, Associate Professor at EE who leads the research, pointed out that in the near future the number of the base stations and the consequent energy consumption would increase when the new generation of mobile network is adopted. The problem of energy waste, as compared with that of the 3G and 4G networks, will be even more serious. The team is now conducting research to enhance the application of this newly developed technology. Dr. Wong believed that the capacity of the new technology to save energy would be even more notable when it is widely adopted in the new mobile network.

Period13 Mar 2019 → 14 Mar 2019

Media coverage

Title城大新技術 手機網絡基站省電4.5%
Description智能電話的普及，令現時手機網絡基站的耗電量愈來愈大。城市大學電子工程學系與電訊公司SmarTone合作，並獲創新科技基金一百一十萬元，成功研發新技術，有效降低手機網絡基站的用電量，從而節省手機在使用3G和4G網絡時，減省至少百分之四點五用電量。負責研究的團隊指，若全港基站均採用此技術，所節省電力可供五千個住戶使用一年，有助日後推動綠色能源。

負責今次研究的城大電子工程學系副教授黃永明稱，現時手機網絡基站內耗電量大的主要裝置是無線電收發器，但即使只有少數用戶使用網絡時，基站仍不斷運作，浪費不少能量；而新技術能根據真實網絡的數據流量紀錄和能量模型，有效評估基站內部分收發器進入睡眠模式後的電力消耗，並應用團隊開發的IESA-CN分析近似法運算，以評估服務質量，從而節省能源。
Persons
Media name/outletSing Tao Daily
PlaceHong Kong
Media typeWeb
Date14/03/19
Title助手機網絡基站慳電 城大：夠5000戶用一年
Description全球各地正進入5G網絡時代，料負責收發信號的手機網絡基站耗電量愈來愈大。香港城市大學的電子工程學團隊獲創新及科技基金資助逾百萬元，與電訊商合作研發新技術，更有效評估基站內的無線電收發器進入睡眠模式後的電力消耗，令基站在不影響服務質素下，慳電至少4.5%。團隊估計，若全港基站採用，節省電量足以供5000住戶使用一年。

負責研究的城大電子工程學系副教授黃永明說，基站佔整個手機網絡運作總耗電量的七成至八成，而耗電量頗大的主要裝置包括無線電收發器，其用作接收和發放信號，但即使於深夜少數用戶使用網絡的時段，基站仍須不停運作，以致其耗電量維持高水平，浪費能源，「若於手機網絡用量偏低時，將基站內的收發器轉為耗電量低的睡眠模式，就能節省能源」。

然而黃永明指出，將收發器轉為睡眠模式，或會令網絡整體負載量減少，降低服務質素，「因此要決定如何和指示多少個收發器轉為睡眠模式，同時又不影響服務質素，須有系統地協調基站運作」。他續稱，其團隊研發的新技術能按真實網絡數據流量紀錄，有效評估收發器進入睡眠模式後的電力消耗，加上利用團隊開發的「IESA-CN分析近似法」，可同時評估網絡服務質素。
Persons
Media name/outletMing Pao
PlaceHong Kong
Media typeWeb
Date14/03/19
Linkhttps://news.mingpao.com/pns/%E6%B8%AF%E8%81%9E/article/20190314/s00002/1552502190530/%E5%8A%A9%E6%89%8B%E6%A9%9F%E7%B6%B2%E7%B5%A1%E5%9F%BA%E7%AB%99%E6%85%B3%E9%9B%BB-%E5%9F%8E%E5%A4%A7-%E5%A4%A05000%E6%88%B6%E7%94%A8%E4%B8%80%E5%B9%B4
TitleNew technology developed at CityU saves at least 4.5% of energy in mobile networks
DescriptionA research project conducted by the Department of Electronic Engineering (EE) at City University of Hong Kong (CityU) has developed technology that can optimise mobile network design and reduce the energy consumption of the base stations by a minimum of 4.5%. If all the base stations in Hong Kong adopt this technology, the energy saved could be enough for at least 5,000 households per year as electricity.

With funding from the government’s Innovation and Technology Fund (ITF) and technical support from SmarTone, the team has developed technology to efficiently evaluate the trade-off between quality of service and power consumption in a cellular network with the base station sleeping. The new technology estimates power consumption based on realistic traffic data and energy models, and then evaluates the quality of service by using the accurate and computationally efficient analytical technique called Information Exchange Surrogate Approximation for Cellular Networks (IESA-CN), which has also been developed by the team.

As it is estimated that the energy consumption of the base stations will increase due to high volume data in future, the team has started to look at ways of applying this newly developed technology for the new mobile network in the near future.
Persons
Media name/outletCityU NewsCentre
PlaceHong Kong
Media typeWeb
Producer/AuthorKenix Wong
Date13/03/19
Linkhttps://newscentre.cityu.edu.hk/media/news/2019/03/13/new-technology-developed-cityu-saves-least-45-energy-mobile-networks