15 Methodology for Modeling the Energy …
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This paper is intended to contribute to a better understanding of the holistic environmental impact of future mobile networks. A series of research questions are being
asked which describe the need for a novel modeling of energy and material needs.
The following questions require a more consistent answer:
• How do the new 5G network architectures and in particular the concept of the
C-RAN affect the overall energy and material demand?
• Which network elements have a proportionally high energy and material demand,
and how does this relate to individual technologies?
• What are the interactions and potentials for energy and resource efficiency between
transmission power and computation power?
• How does the energy and material impact scale with increasing data traffic,
network capacity, and area coverage?
• What are the best technology options for reducing energy and material demand
in given network scenarios?
• What is the overall lifecycle impact of 5G networks considering the embedded
energy and resources?
• In what order of magnitude and in which direction does the power consumption of
telecommunication networks change with an increasing shift of data processing
into the cloud?
• To what degree do more efficient technologies compensate for the growing number
of antennas and increasing data traffic?
These questions are motivating the development of a new approach for modeling
the energy and material footprint of future telecommunication networks. Over the
past years, Fraunhofer IZM developed various approaches for modeling the aggregated energy demand of information and communication technology products (ICT)
including telecommunication networks and data centers (Stobbe 2015, 2016, 2017).
In a previous study (Stobbe 2015), funded by the German Ministry of Economy
and published in 2015, the author used a device inventory model with average use
patterns for calculating the annual energy consumption. These inventory model based
simulations indicated that data centers and telecommunication networks in Germany
would reach 50% of total ICT related energy consumption by 2025 (Fig. 15.2).
The telecommunications networks have since then developed significantly in
terms of new technology, performance, and applications. Against this background,
it seems necessary to develop a much more accurate model for predicting the environmental impact of future telecommunications networks. Moreover, today there is
a need to not only determine the energy demand, but also to estimate the productionrelated use of materials in more detail. Environmental policy makers recognize the
utilization of precious metals, rare and critical minerals as similarly important as
energy consumption (JRC Science for policy report 2017; SCREEN Project 2016).
In this paper, the authors report about the development of an extended modeling
approach. This research is ongoing and part of the research project UTAMO. The
task of this research project is the development of a technically precise inventory
model for the calculation of the energy and material requirements of current and
225
This paper is intended to contribute to a better understanding of the holistic environmental impact of future mobile networks. A series of research questions are being
asked which describe the need for a novel modeling of energy and material needs.
The following questions require a more consistent answer:
• How do the new 5G network architectures and in particular the concept of the
C-RAN affect the overall energy and material demand?
• Which network elements have a proportionally high energy and material demand,
and how does this relate to individual technologies?
• What are the interactions and potentials for energy and resource efficiency between
transmission power and computation power?
• How does the energy and material impact scale with increasing data traffic,
network capacity, and area coverage?
• What are the best technology options for reducing energy and material demand
in given network scenarios?
• What is the overall lifecycle impact of 5G networks considering the embedded
energy and resources?
• In what order of magnitude and in which direction does the power consumption of
telecommunication networks change with an increasing shift of data processing
into the cloud?
• To what degree do more efficient technologies compensate for the growing number
of antennas and increasing data traffic?
These questions are motivating the development of a new approach for modeling
the energy and material footprint of future telecommunication networks. Over the
past years, Fraunhofer IZM developed various approaches for modeling the aggregated energy demand of information and communication technology products (ICT)
including telecommunication networks and data centers (Stobbe 2015, 2016, 2017).
In a previous study (Stobbe 2015), funded by the German Ministry of Economy
and published in 2015, the author used a device inventory model with average use
patterns for calculating the annual energy consumption. These inventory model based
simulations indicated that data centers and telecommunication networks in Germany
would reach 50% of total ICT related energy consumption by 2025 (Fig. 15.2).
The telecommunications networks have since then developed significantly in
terms of new technology, performance, and applications. Against this background,
it seems necessary to develop a much more accurate model for predicting the environmental impact of future telecommunications networks. Moreover, today there is
a need to not only determine the energy demand, but also to estimate the productionrelated use of materials in more detail. Environmental policy makers recognize the
utilization of precious metals, rare and critical minerals as similarly important as
energy consumption (JRC Science for policy report 2017; SCREEN Project 2016).
In this paper, the authors report about the development of an extended modeling
approach. This research is ongoing and part of the research project UTAMO. The
task of this research project is the development of a technically precise inventory
model for the calculation of the energy and material requirements of current and