Industry giants trial AI for network 'hibernation'

Ericsson and Vodafone UK have announced a recent trial using AI to reduce the power consumption of 5G radio units by up to 33 per cent. The trial took place across London.

Picture credit: Adobe Stock/Dasya - Dasya

Discussing the solutions used during the trial, a spokesperson said: “Ericsson's Service Continuity AI App suite with intelligent energy efficiency, dynamically manages the network's energy needs without compromising on performance. This supports operators to reduce their operating expenditure and carbon emissions.

“As part of the trial, Vodafone UK implemented three key use cases. These were 5G deep sleep, 4G cell sleep mode orchestration, and a radio power efficiency heat map. These features work in tandem to measure, predict and optimise energy consumption across the network, with the ability to power down components during low traffic periods, and rapidly reactivate them when needed.”

Discussing 5G deep sleep in particular, the spokesperson spoke of “AI-powered predictive algorithms enabling radios to enter an ultra-low energy hibernation state.”

CEO of Ericsson UK and Ireland, Katherine Ainley, said: "It's exciting to see how our work with Vodafone UK is making a real difference. Our ability to significantly reduce network energy consumption while maintaining high performance standards is a testament to the innovation and expertise of our combined teams.