The Ultimate Evaluation of Current Consumption and QoS Metrics in 5G Mobile Networks Over IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS)

With the widespread deployment of 5G, understanding its energy impact is crucial. This work evaluates the energy efficiency and Quality of Service (QoS) performance of 5G networks, comparing Non-Standalone (NSA) and Standalone (SA) architectures. We investigated the current consumption and QoS within 5G mobile networks, leveraging the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) for Voice over New Radio (VoNR) and 5G Voice over Long-Term-Evolution using Dual-Connectivity feature (5G VoLTE). The analysis considers key QoS metrics: Mean Opinion Score (MOS), delay, and jitter, across all the communication paths from User Equipment (UE) to the 5G network and IMS core. Our results demonstrate that 5G NSA networks exhibit higher energy consumption compared to 5G SA deployments. Furthermore, we observed a correlation between energy behavior and QoS performance. Specifically, higher energy consumption in NSA networks and 5G VoLTE was associated with measurable impacts on MOS, delay, and jitter. These findings highlight the potential for SA deployments and VoNR to offer improved QoS and greater energy efficiency. Therefore, this study provides valuable insights for mobile network operators seeking to optimize resource allocation and reduce operational costs while maintaining a high-quality user experience in 5G networks.