Project SOOGREEN

Abstract

Mobile networks are witnessing an exponential growth of traffic volumes, associated with the emergence of new services. In particular, video services constitute a major part of the traffic and their share is expected to increase. In the same time, Internet of Things (IoT) related traffic will gain in importance with the explosion of the number of connected objects. This situation pushes towards an evolution of network architectures (e.g. LTE-A features on centralized/virtual RAN) and of content delivery solutions (e.g. in network caching).

SooGreen is built around the need of reducing the energy consumption of services in light of the traffic evolutions and exploiting the new network architectures, while keeping in mind the development of smart grids. This includes:

• modeling the energy consumption of services in different mobile network architectures and taking into account the end-to-end path
• definition of KPIs for energy efficiency of services and adequate measurement and reporting methods (for energy efficiency standard evolutions)
• a joint dynamic optimization of the mobile access network and the content delivery solutions
• definition of service-specific offload solutions that reduce the energy consumption
• proposal of solutions for enabling the bi-directional interaction of the mobile network and the smart grid by exploiting the flexibility of some services and the energy storage capabilities in the network.

While focusing on services, SooGreen keeps an eye on the improvement of the technical environment in order to improve the overall energy efficiency including:

• efficient cooling solutions for central offices
• optimization of the energy storage and power conversion in base station sites. SooGreen will propose innovative Battery Management System and a new concept of integrated fuel cell for energy back-up.

SooGreen is an industry-driven project where practical solutions and demonstrators are privileged, in addition to theoretical and simulation studies.