Today, climate change is arguably the biggest challenge for mankind, and carbon emission has been a top concern. Many countries, industries and corporations have set ambitious targets for carbon neutrality and net-zero, which is their strong commitment to the world, and the mobile industry is no exception. In the GSMA guidance for the mobile network operators, the goal is to reduce carbon emissions by 45% from 2020 to 2030. However, power saving has long been a tough challenge since 2G era and is becoming even tougher with the upcoming 5G. To help the fight against the global climate change, we need to think in new ways that how we reduce mobile network energy consumption to make green networks since the pressure is visibly enormous.

General Introduction to GreenPilot

For the green ICT infrastructure, ZTE GreenPilot solution, a green end-to-end future-oriented solution for global operators, arises at this historic moment. It’s applicable for various scenarios, offering full-process energy-saving solutions to maximize the energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions.

In terms of energy usage for Macrosite, GreenPilot offers full-process energy-saving capabilities including power supply, power storage and power use and management. This solution incorporates SolarMaster, SmartLi, PowerPilot and iEnergy.

Clean power supply comes first. ZTE SolarMaster solution enables traditional sites to smoothly upgrade to solar-powered onesin all scenarios. Based on innovative technologies, it can increase the power generation efficiency by more than 10%.

And then comes smart power storage. ZTE SmartLi Battery solution, equipped with multiple intelligent functions such as hybrid use, voltage boost, smart shaving and i-Lock, can optimize battery utilization. Working with ZTE UniPower, the simplified and efficient power system, the power loss can be reduced effectively, and power usage of sites can be green and highly efficient.

The radio access part consumes the largest proportion of energy among the entire mobile network. Targeting at low carbon and low consumption, ZTE's 4G and 5G network energy saving solution, PowerPilot, is proposed to make the network green.

With the help of AI and big data technologies, PowerPilot can evaluate service requirements in real time and enable the network to support the service with higher energy efficiency but less impact on the network performance. Based on more refined strategies and new features, PowerPilot2.0 can save up to 30% of energy in a multi-mode network. PowerPilot2.0 enables the network to actively assist 5G terminals in energy saving, increasing battery life by over 30%. In a word, PowerPilot2.0 can achieve end-to-end energy saving and energy consumption reduction of the network, and helps lower carbon footprint.

Finally, regarding the intelligent power management, ZTE iEnergy solution can implement power equipment management and intelligent O&M in the entire network, further improving the efficiency of network energy usage.

Successful Cases of GreenPilot

Recently, China Mobile and ZTE have built a 5G green low-carbon site in Beijing. In order to fully re-utilize the existing equipment and maximize the use of site space, the solar panels are deployed on the rooftop of room. Working together with UniPower and SmartLi Battery, the solar energy has the top priority for load power supply. This green equipment room achieves 6300 kWh solar power generation, making the main power consumption saved by 13%. At the same time, field tests show around 12 kWh is saved per site daily in the trial area by applying PowerPilot solution with AI-based service pilot, which accounts for 30% energy consumption reduction for the whole network. On a yearly basis, overall 10,000 kWh per site can be saved, equivalent to 8-ton carbon emission.

In Guangdong, China Telecom and ZTE have jointly completed the modification of low-carbon roof cabinet site, which is also adaptable to the 3rd-party power equipment, by deploying solar panels over the cabinet and solar controller system in 2 hours by 2 persons. This green cabinet site generates more than 1200 kWh solar power in a year. In the trial area, based on the traffic load prediction feature of PowerPilot solution, it is verified that energy consumption has been reduced by more than 23%. And the effective activation duration of power saving has been increased by 200% compared to that of non-AI power saving solutions.

As of now, ZTE GreenPilot solution has been applied in more than 20 countries and regions. Rooted in the idea of “Green, Efficient, Intelligent, Reliable”, it helps global operators build a green and low-carbon network for the benefits of people. ZTE, as an end-to-end ICT solution provider, is always taking global carbon neutrality as our social responsibility. ZTE is committed to developing innovative technologies to achieve sustainable development, and build a zero-carbon world together with all partners.

This content is sponsored by ZTE.