A Parametric Power Model of Multi-Band Sub-6 GHz Cellular Base Stations Using On-Site Measurements

The increasing energy consumption of mobile networks has emerged as a critical concern for mobile telecommunication operators, requiring measures to curb or reverse the historical upward trajectory in order to align with the sector’s decarbonization target. Meanwhile, 5G-NR is massively deployed in the networks to improve quality of service, with the hope of simultaneously improving energy efficiency thanks to enhanced power-saving features. However, up-to-date 5G-enabled base stations, that support higher bandwidths with more transceivers at higher frequencies, raise concerns about their absolute power consumption, especially at low traffic loads. Proper power models are therefore needed to identify the key levers for energy savings in mobile networks under real traffic loads. This paper addresses this challenge by first providing a parametric power consumption model applicable to commercial sub- 6 GHz cellular base stations. Then, numerical model parameters are estimated by combining on-site measurements from operators with radio equipment documentation from manufacturers. The uncertainty of model predictions is assessed to be in the range of $\mathbf{1 0 - 2 0 \%}$. Moreover, we show that the proposed average power model aligns well with measurements of equipment that use existing power-saving features. Estimates of power consumption are also provided for typical 3-sector single-band macro base stations in active mode, e.g., 1-4 kW when equipped with traditional radio units, and 2-4 kW when using active antenna units.