How many 5G base stations are built in China?

As 5G serves as the foundation for the construction of new infrastructure, China, as the world leader in 5G base station construction, has already built over 1.4 million 5G base stations in 2021 alone. In the same year, 5G base stations in China produced approximately 49.2 million tons of CO 2 eq.

Are 5G base stations sustainable?

However, due to their high radio frequency and limited coverage, the construction and operation of 5G base stations can lead to significant energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. To address this challenge, scholars have focused on developing sustainable 5G base stations.

What is 5G base station equipment architecture?

The 5G base station equipment architecture mainly adopts the BBU + AAU method. The BBU is the baseband part and can be further divided into two logical network elements, CU and DU. The CU handles the protocol stack functions above the PDCP layer of the wireless network, while the DU handles radio protocol functions below the PDCP layer.

How much carbon does a 5G base station produce?

Previous research has estimated that a single 5G base station will produce approximately 30.2 ~ 33.5 tCO 2 eq throughout its life cycle (Ding et al., 2022; Guo et al., 2022a). Consequently, the carbon emissions from 5G base stations in China in 2021 amounted to approximately 49.2 MtCO 2 eq.

How does a 5G base station consume energy?

In terms of energy consumption, 5G base stations require continuous operation and stability, which leads to significant electricity consumption (Guo et al., 2022a). This power is mainly supplied by transmission equipment and auxiliary equipment, such as transformers, UPS power supplies, and cooling equipment.

What is base station energy saving?

There are mainly two method of base station energy saving, which are hardware power saving and software energy saving. It is based on lowering the basic energy consumption of the base station.