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Green BTS gives fresh breath

Green BTS

fresh breath
G
lobal telecom equipment suppliers are rolling out their own green BTSs. However, each might have a different understanding on the definition of a green BTS since currently there is no defined standard in the industry. If we analyze the one-time capital expenditure (CAPEX) before launch time and the operational expenditure (OPEX) afterwards, it is apparent that a real green BTS should incorporate environmental protection into product design and produce to significantly lower the total cost of ownership (TCO) while saving energy. The green BTS benefits mobile operators mainly in these three important areas: auxiliary equipment, network deployment, and environmental protection and resources utilization. sites will save operators over USD120 million in Europe. Due to small dimensions and light weight, more than 70% civil works can be reduced at the same time. With increasing price of fuel, more cost on OPEX could be further saved. In the industry, promoting integration, adding external combiner, or shortening the backup time by reducing battery facilities is commonly used to make the site acquisition easier. Due to low BTS integration and site limitation brought by tower, space, cost etc., the number of feeders and antennas will be consequently restricted. To realize that multiple carriers share the same feeder and antenna, an expensive external combiner has to be added. The green BTS will be able to provide 4 to 6 carriers by one common port. For a S12/12/12 site, only 1 to 2 battery cabinets are required, about 0.5m2 occupied, which makes site acquisition more convenient and flexible, saves CAPEX, and shortens the network planning and rollout period.

gives

By Wu Wujun

Reducing sites and saving auxiliary cost

As the cost of BTS often occupies only around 30% of one site CAPEX, while in Europe and other developed countries, t h e p ro p o r t i o n i n C A PE X i s a b o u t 15%. Reducing the site related auxiliary equipment will directly decrease CAPEX. Higher integration is thus demanded. Suppose a GSM site with S12/12/12 typical configuration in dense urban, the footprint of site with traditional BTS will be over 1.5m 2 . If the footprint can be decreased to 0.5m2, acquisition of 10,000 23 FEB 2008 . ISSUE 38

Power consumption cut by 50%

Environmentally friendly products generally feature lower power consumption, less noise, less electromagnetic radiation, and lower environmental impact. That is precisely what the green BTS aims to achieve. For example, a typical GSM S4/4/4 site with a traditional macro BTS consumed

1,600W in 2007, and the total power consumption of the site was around 3,000W. If power consumption of both BTS and auxiliary equipment can be optimized, a site with less than 450W power consumption will lead to 85% decrease in total power consumption, which is about 22,000 kilowatt hours per site every year. That means 70 million liters of fuel, accounting for USD400 million, and would be saved for an African GSM operator with 10,000 outdoor sites in 5 years. To achieve this target, Huawei green BTS adopts enhanced Doherty technology, the latest power amplifier chipset, and brand new hardware design to realize energy conservation and environmental protection by a three-tier approach. First, the latest power amplifier chipset and high efficiency scheduling algorithm can effectively reduce more than 60% of the static power, substantially avoiding the unnecessary waste of energy. Second, industry-wide power amplifier efficiency was less than 33% in 2006, but with the latest chipset and enhanced D P D & Do h e r t y t e c h n o l o g i e s , t h e amplifier efficiency is improved from 33% to 45%. It is safe to forecast that the power amplifier efficiency will be improved to 50% by the year 2008. As a consequence, power consumption will be further decreased, and fuel consumption and emission of carbon dioxide will be significantly reduced. By using highefficiency power amplifier technologies

Huawei Technologies

and the latest amplifier chipset, the internal heat generated by the BTS components is greatly decreased. The traditional heat dissipation methods such as air-conditioning and heat-exchange can be replaced by convection cooling or natural heat dissipation, eliminating noise and saving energy. Third, according to a number of industr y consulting firms, 750W power supply is a dividing line between green energy and fuel engine. If a lessthan 750W BTS uses green energy, investment balance can be reached within three years compared with that uses a fuel engine. For small BTSs or distributed BTSs in low traffic areas, such as the BTSs of one sector and less than 2 transceivers, their power consumption is far less than 750W. Therefore, the green energy such as solar, and wind can be used to power the BTSs. This not only saves the investment, but also takes full advantage of using natural energy to eliminate environmental pollution.

Easier installation
It is well known that a traditional BTS is composed of many modules including baseband, RF, combiner, transmission, operation and management. These cause very complicated wiring and rigid installation mode, making site construction and expansion difficult. In 2005, distributed BTS with open common port radio interface (CPRI) was developed as the first modular BTS. As the distributed BTS is physically divided into baseband module and RF module interconnected through optical fiber, the flexibility of site acquisition and installation is greatly enhanced. With regard to the dimensions, a baseband module that is 3U to 4U in height can enable the installation on the existing equipment such as an automatic power management (APM) cabinet, transmission equipment cabinet or remote equipment room. Thanks to its light weight, the RF module supports various installation modes including installation on tower, pole, or against wall. Because of its small capacity (one or two carriers), a traditional distributed BTS is only applicable to indoor coverage or small capacity application scenarios. In 2008, Huaweis full range of the fourth generation BTSs will be highly modularized. All BTSs will be unified to baseband and RF modules. Due to introduction of multi-carrier and broadband radio technology, the capacity of baseband unit will be improved by five times, and meanwhile the height will be further reduced to 1U to 2U. In terms of RF module, the dimensions remain unchanged but one single module can support 4 to 6 carriers, accounting for 2 to 3 times capacity increase compared with

the industrys average. These enable the distributed BTS to support up to 12 transceivers per sector. The capacity bottleneck has been eventually broken. The modular design is an innovative new type of BTS, which simplifies wiring between different modules and enables the BTS to be stacked or assembled in various ways like a building block. This makes site construction simpler, expansion smoother, and civil works costs related to site lower. Operators will benefit from convenient installation and easier site acquisition, reducing the investment on site and shortening network deployment time. The green BTS is an effective means of ensuring profitability and assisting operators to rapidly lower TCO in an increasingly competitive environment. As a leading telecom equipment provider, Huawei is making persistent efforts to innovate based on customer demands. Its series of green BTSs will bridge the standards gap to realize multi-system integration, and help operators to lower TCO through a green way. Editor: Chen Yuhong chyhong@huawei.com

FEB 2008 . ISSUE 38

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