It’s early days for AI, and we’re still discovering new ways it can be implemented, with Vodafone recently testing out a promising new use case for it.
The network in partnership with Ericsson has successfully trialled a combination of AI and ML (machine learning) solutions to significantly reduce the power consumption of 5G Radio Units.
In the trial – which was run at select sites in London – Vodafone saw a reduction in daily power consumption of up to 33% at the 5G Radio Units, making its network in these places far more energy efficient without impacting the user experience.
This was achieved using Ericsson’s Service Continuity AI App suite with Intelligent Energy Efficiency, which dynamically managed Vodafone’s energy needs, reducing costs and carbon emissions without any hit on performance.
Three powerful features
This suite altered energy use based on three key use cases. There’s ‘5G Deep Sleep’, which saw it put the 5G Radio Units into an ultra-low energy hibernation state during low traffic hours. In this state, energy consumption was reduced by a whopping 70%.
Of course, that’s not suitable at all times, so there’s also ‘4G Cell Sleep Mode Orchestration’, which used AI and ML to automatically balance energy savings and performance, and the network also used this tech to create a ‘Radio Power Efficiency Map’, which is a visual map of all network cells that were part of the trial, which would then use ML to identify and rank underperforming sites so that targeted improvements could be applied to them.
All three of these features worked in tandem to optimize Vodafone’s network at the trial sites.
Andrea Donà, Chief Network Officer & Network Director, Vodafone UK, said: “By working with Ericsson to successfully apply these innovative software solutions to our network, we’re able to significantly improve energy efficiency without impacting the service our customers receive. Reducing power consumption at our trial sites is a big win – both financially and environmentally – and shows we can continue to improve the efficiency of our network as we build 5G coverage across the UK.”
Of course, this is just a trial, but given how successful it seems to have been, we may well see this tech applied permanently to Vodafone’s network in future, and while the cost savings may not be passed on to consumers, this should certainly be good for the environment.
