Case Study #1: Management of a Smart Base

Station Power System for Green LTE Cellular

Network in Malaysia
Case Study #2: Conceptual Framework On
TVWS Telemedicine Network for Rural Area in
Malaysia
Rosdiadee Nordin, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
MALAYSIA

Case Study #1: Management of a Smart

Base Station Power System for Green LTE
Cellular Network in Malaysia

Why Energy Efficiency in wireless Communication??

2013
2012
2011
2010

Number of
subscribers
increased

2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
-

1,000

2,000

3,000

4,000

5,000

6,000

Mobile-cellular subscriptions in (million)

Mobile Data Traffic

(Exabytes per Month)

2.8

Mobile data traffic

increased

Source: (ITU) statistics database

7,000

Base stations
increased

Mobile Data Traffic

1.6
0.9

0
2012

2013

2014

Source: Cisco Report (2013)

This increase has subsequently increased the overall energy consumption,

operational costs and carbon footprint of cellular networks.

Cont.
Energy consumption in cellular networks
taking into increase and will be increased
more in the future.
2012
2011

Energy efciency in cellular networks

is a growing concern for cellular
operators to not only maintain
protability, but also to reduce the
overall environment effects.
49 MtCO2

2010

14%

15%

2009

51 MtCO2

2008

51%

20%

2007
0

50
100
150
200
250
Electricity Consumption (TWh/yr)

179 MtCO2

70 MtCO2
Mobile Sector
Telecom Devices

Fixed Narrowband
Fixed Broadband

Total= 260 (TWh/2012)

Total= 349 MtCO2

Fig. 3. Worldwide electricity consumption of

mobile Telecommunication networks

Fig. 4. Forecast Carbon Footprint Contribution

by Telecom for 2020.

Source: S. Lambert et al. (2012)

Source: L. Suarez et al. (2012)

Where is Energy Spent?

Fig. 5. Energy consumption composition of a

mobile operator.

Each BS consumes approximately

25 MWh per year

Fig. 6. Redundancy in the cellular coverage.

BSs are densely deployed and

overlapping, further waste of energy

For an cellular operators, to expand and deliver their services to potential new customers,
they must solve the problem of electricity supply in a reliable and cost-effective way.

T. Chen, Y. Yang, H. Zhang, and H. Kim, "Network
Energy Saving Technologies for Green Wireless Access
Networks", IEEE Commun. Mag., Octaber 2011.

E. Oh, B. Krishnamachari, X. Liu, and Z. Niu, Towards

Dynamic Energy-Efficient Operation of Cellular Network
Infrastructure, IEEE Commun. Mag., June 2011

Cont
The power consumption grows proportionally with the number of cells
Ptx

+ PRF + PBB

PA (1 feed )

Ptot = N cells
(1 DC )(1 MS )(1 Cool )

STEP 1: Towards Energy-Efcient in cellular networks by reducing the number

and size of active macro-cells according to traffic load conditions.

In this work, the decision to determine which cells remain active depends
on two considerations:

1. The ease with which radio coverage can be provided to neighbouring
cells to guarantee service.

2. The largest possible number of neighbouring cells should be switched
off to significantly reduce the energy required.

The optimal cells that satisfy these conditions are located in the middle of a cluster (and
are called master cells) and can easily provide coverage to 6 neighbouring cells that will
be switched off later.

Cont

*
*

*
*

*
*

Fig. 7. A cellular network in an urban scenario.

[Blue cells represent a normal case with Rorg =750 m; black and green cells represent low traffic
with R= 2Rorg= 1.5 km; and red cells represent idle traffic with R= 4Rorg= 3 km]

* Master Cells (7 cells): cant be switch-off - work 24 hours

1
0.9
0.8

The power consumed at

the BSs is different, that
because some of cells
works 11hrs during high
mobile traffic only,
other work 9 hrs at low
traffic, and 4 hrs at idle
traffic.

0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.2

1.4

1.6

1.8

Time Period

Traffic Category

Total

12:00 AM - 2:00 AM

Low Traffic 0
.1 < 0.2

2:00 AM - 6:00 AM

Idle Traffic

8:00 AM - 10:00 AM

0
< < 0.1
Low Traffic
0.1 < 0.2
Low Traffic
0.2 0.4

10:00 AM - 9:00 PM

High Traffic 0
.4 <

9:00 PM - 12:00 AM

Low Traffic
0.2 0.4

6:00 AM - 8:00 AM

4

2

2

11

3

Fig. 8. Categories and period of time for daily traffic

Cells switch-off
(spatial diversity)
Evaluate the impact of transmission power on
cell size and coverage.
Evaluate the impact of SINR on cell size
Evaluate the impact of SINR on RSRP &MCS
Evaluate the impact of cell size on data rate
Evaluate the impact of transmitted power,
MCS, and BW on the EE of LTE macro BS
Evaluate a total
power saving

Evaluate a total
cost saving

Evaluate a Co 2
reduction

The results show that energy savings of up to 48% can be obtained at 90% cell coverage
for low and idle traffic cases.

Country overview

Malaysia lies entirely within
the equatorial region.

Daily average global solar

irradiation of approximately
(4.21 - 5.56) kWh/m2/day, and
the average temperature per
day ranges from 33C during
the day to 23C at night.

6

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

1
0

Clearness Index

Daily Radiation (kWh\m2\day)

Fig. 9. Malaysia geographical map.

0
Jan

Feb Mar Apr May Jun

Daily Radiation

Jul

Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Clearness Index

STEP 2: Develop an integration between cells switch-off approach (spatial

diversity), and renewable resource energy (solar).

Cont


The specific needs in power supply for BS such as cost effectiveness,
efficiency, sustainability, reliability and positive impact on the environment
can be met with the technological advances in renewable energy.


Renewable energy systems have the following advantages:

Protection of the environment as there is no emission of CO and green house

gases,

Cost-effectiveness,

Diversity of security power sources,

Rapid deployment, modular and easy to install,

Resources are abundant, free and inexhaustible.

More BSs are located in metropolitan areas because of the high
population. All of these BSs are powered by the electric grid.

Hybrid of renewable energy resources and electric grid[Urban scenario].

Optimum criteria: economic, technical and environmental feasibility
analysis was performed through optimization software, Hybrid
Optimization Model for Electric Renewables (HOMER).

 HOMER (http://homerenergy.com) - an optimization software package

simulates various renewable energy sources system configurations and
scales these configurations on the basis of the net present cost (NPC)

The NPC represents the life cycle cost of the system.

Fig. 10. System model of an adaptive power management scheme

for a LTE-based BS powered by a smart grid

The power consumed at the BSs is different as well as the period time. The figure that has
given provides a vision about the power demand and the period time for each case.

1000
Demand (W)

800
600
400
200
0
0

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Hour

Case 1: Power demand of BSs operate at high traffic load only

1000
800
0

600

Low Traffic

400

11

200

High Traffic

0
0

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Case 2: Power demand of BSs operate at high and low traffic loads

Low Traffic

Idle Traffic

High Traffic

Case 3: Power demand of BSs operate at high, low, and idle traffic loads

Three categories of power demand load, Therefore we have a three

optimal design of hybrid power system as shown in Table 1

Table 1. Optimisation criteria for economic, technical and environmental aspects

Optimisation criteria

Period time

Daily demand

Energy
PV

Model

Battery

Converter

Grid

Economical
IC

Operating

NPC

COE

Environment CO2

al

SO2

NO

Unit

[Hours]

[kW/day]

[kW]

[Unit]

[kW]

[kW]

[$]

[$/yr]

[$]

[$/kWh]

[Kg/yr]

[Kg/yr]

[Kg/yr]

Case 1

11 hrs

10.62

0.8

5

1.2

0.8

5,780

565

13.01

0.26

1,673

7.25

3.55

Case 2

20 hrs

16.13

1.2

5

1.0

0.8

7,200

755

16.85

0.22

2,510

10.9

5.32

Case 3

24 hrs

19.13

1.2

5

1.0

0.8

7,200

892

18.61

0.21

3,070

13.3

6.51

Fig. 12. Monthly energy contribution of a solar system

Fig. 13. Energy purchased monthly for different cases

Energy contribution (%)

100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%

37%

1,528 kWh/yr

63%

2,646 kWh/yr

Case 1

36% 2,279 kWh/yr

3,972 kWh/yr

64%

Case 2
Electric Grid

35%
2,564 kWh/yr

65%

4,858 kWh/yr

Case 3

PV

Fig. 14 Annual energy contributions from different sources

Monthly OPEX savings (%)

The simulation results show that the hybrid power system of the PV/
electric grid can save up to 32% of the annual operational expenditure
(OPEX).

40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Month
Case 1

Case 2

Case 3

Fig. 15. Monthly OPEX savings

Cost percentage of NPC (%)

100%
80%

Grid

60%

PV
Battery

40%

Converter

20%
0%
Case 1

Case 2

Case 3

Fig. 16. Cash ow summary for hybrid PV/electric grid system

NPC =

TAC
CRF

TAC = total annualised cost ($)

CRF = capital recovery factor

CONCLUDING REMARKS

It is in favor of both the network operators and the society to swiftly
address these challenges to minimize the environmental and financial
impact of such a fast growing and widely adopted technology.

Case Study #2: Conceptual

Framework on TVWS
Telemedicine Network for Rural
Areas in Malaysia

Introduction
TVWS is a technology proposed to add value in the
wireless ecosystem.
Hence, it has been suggested as an enabling technology
to maximize wireless utility in rural broadband services,
emergency services and lately in transportation industry.
We are proposing using TVWS as a backbone for Medical
Wireless Body Area Sensor Networks (MWBASN) for
rural and semi-urban areas.

Problem Statement
a healthy nation is a wealthy nation ~ massive investment in the
health sector.
However, some problems continue to exist:
Health services are grossly inadequate in some parts of the
country, particularly in East Malaysia and in the East Coast
States of West Peninsular Malaysia.
Delays in constructing, equipping of medical facilities due to
budget constraints.

Problem Statement cont

Shortfall in number of manpower in health sector, both
professional staff and technicians.
Decline in death rate with the resultant high proportion of aged
society.
High propensity of relocating from urban to rural/semi-urban
environment, especially the retirees

Research Objectives
Our goals are to deploy TVWS to enhance:
Availability - TVWS as a backbone wireless media for making
healthcare available in rural and sparsely inhabited areas.
Affordability - The focus group are the rural areas, cost
minimization in-terms of wireless access technology
infrastructural roll-out is ensured.
Accessibility - Studies have shown that there are ample amount
of unused spectrum in the rural areas and hence, end-to-end
service accessibility both in real and non real time is assured.

Target Audience
Case 1
This is designed for the elderly people suffering from unpredictable diseases
like high blood pressure (BP), heart disease, organ failures which can occur
intermittently. As well as those living far away from medical centers.

Case 2
Our target focus for rural areas with limited trained medical experts. These
group of patients are mobile and can be physically present at health centers.

Methodology

Inter-Base Station Coexistence and Downlink Resource

Allocation in TVWS Assisted by Grey Prediction Algorithm

Research Objectives
Introduction of financial modeling (grey series) to predict
PU occupancy statistics in Cognitive Radio OFDMA
Networks (CRON)
Novel primal algorithm for resource allocation in CRON
based on skipping spectrum sensing and utilizing that time
slot to extract channel state information
Mathematical formulation on overhead cost in nonimplementation of cooperative joint resource allocation
using sub-space techniques