Green Wireless

Communication
-

Roopesh Paranandi
M.Tech, IIT Delhi

The term Green Telecommunication can be defined as the technology which uses
convergence of energy efficient methodologies at different stages in
Telecommunication sector to minimize the adverse effects of technology on
environment.

SITUATION

Current Telecom Industry

The most boisterous revolution in technology has been the phenomenal evolution in
telecommunication especially in wireless and mobile communication.
Telecommunication industry is growing at a very fast rate
Nowadays, there are more than 4 billion cellular phones due to fast upgradation in
technologies.
The rapid growth of subscribers encourages fast upgradation in technologies leading
to increased number of base stations which in turn will lead to more energy
consumption.
Deployment of mobile broadband network such as LTE on 2G and 3G networks will
increase approximately 25% number of base stations.

Current Environment

Climate change is one of the undeniable universal challenges in present scenario

because of increased GHG, mainly Carbon Dioxide(CO2).
Natural calamities like typhoons, floods and changes in sea levels are attributed to
CO2. emissions.
It is predicted that during the last 30 years the CO2 emissions have gone up by 73%.
India ranked 5th amongst the countries in the list of worldwide GHG emissions, with
USA and China contributing about 4 times emission than that of India.
Kyoto Protocol has been signed by 160 countries including India in 1997, calls on all
countries to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases by 5% from the 1990 level by
the year 2020.
India is committed to reduce carbon intensity by 20-25% between 2005 and 2020.

Impact of ICT on environment

ICT industry alone accounts for about 2% or 860 million tons of worlds greenhouse
gas emissions [1].
The main causative sectors within the ICT industry include the energy requirements of
PCs and monitors about 40%, data centers about 23% and fixed and mobile
telecommunication contributes about 24% of the total emissions.
Compared to other sectors such as transport, construction and energy production,
the ICT sector is comparatively energy-lean with telecommunication contributing just
0.7% or about 230 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions.

ACTORS

Major Actors in Green

Telecommunications
The following are the major actors in Green Telecommunication scenario
Telecommunication Service Providers
Telecommunication Equipment Manufacturers
Telecommunication Policy Makers
Telecommunication Regulators(TRAI)
Telecommunication Users
Climate Change and other Environmental Parameters

PROCESS

Process

Growing telecommunication infrastructure requires increasing amount of electricity

to power it.
India currently has more than 310000 cell phone towers, which consume about 2
billion litres of diesel per year.
A typical telecommunications company spends nearly 1% of its revenues on energy
which for large operators may amount to hundreds of crores of rupees.
The challenge is to pursue expansion in telecommunication sector, while ensuring
that the 2% of global emissions does not radically increase.
However most research efforts emphasize on advancements in technology and
ignore the adverse effect of technology on environment.

Statistics

LEARNING

Observations
The energy expense of European operator is 18% of the total OPEX and for the Indian
operator it is 30% of the total OPEX.
There is more scope for the Indian operators for development.
Power per user in fixed line access is stable and power per user in mobile access
depends upon the number of users in the cell and tend to vary.
The mobile devices are already optimized for low power consumption to achieve
long autonomy.
Base stations consume power significantly in the cellular network scenario and more
endeavors should be put on the energy saving of base station side.

ACTIONS

Telecommunication and Green economy

Areas in which Telecommunication has to go green can be broadly classified in terms of:
1. Greening of telecommunication networks.
2. Greening of telecommunication equipment manufacture.
3. Safe telecommunication waste disposal.

Aspects in Green Telecommunications

Green Telecommunication Networks: Minimizing utilization of energy through use of

energy efficient technology, using renewable energy resources and environmental
friendly consumables.
Green Manufacturing: Using eco-friendly components, energy efficient
manufacturing equipment, electronic and mechanical waste recycling and disposal,
reduction in use of hazardous substances like chromium, lead and mercury and
reduction of harmful radio emissions.
Waste Disposal: Disposal of mobile phones and network equipment in environmentfriendly manner so that any toxic material used during production doesnt
channelized into the atmosphere or underground water.

Reducing Carbon Footprint

Proper radio planning to reduce number of Base transceiver stations.
Sharing of backhaul network.
Sharing of passive and active infrastructure.
Replacing air-conditioners with forced air cooling.
HFC free cooling systems.
Installing outdoor base-stations.
Using energy efficient technology and renewable energy resources.

Green Technologies

Green base transceiver stations : The Green Base Stations which is introduced is
operational with the regenerative energy resources like wind power, photovoltaic
energy, Fuel cells and Pico Hydro technologies etc.

Green Technologies

Green handovers: Green handover aims at reduced emissions from mobile phones.
Present day handover or choosing of the base stations is done through downlink
signal quality(typically SNR and SINR) of the neighbouring base stations without any
consideration of the uplink signal quality.
Uplink Signal quality should also need to be concerned because if the uplink channel
is bad then mobile device has to transmit more power to reach to base stations
which leads to various health hazards like cancer, short term memory span and
various other physiological and psychological disorders.
Utilization of beamforming techniques of MIMO to reduce emissions on mobile station
side.

Green Technologies

Smart grid Technology: Smart Grid refers to a transformation of the electricity

delivery system so it monitors, protects and automatically optimizes the operation of
its interconnected elements-from the central and distributed generator through the
high-voltage transmission network and the distribution system
Telecommunication can leverage the presence of its ubiquitous network to
communicate between the smart-meters and smart-grid for various communication
needs between them and there by helping in reducing the load-balancing and
reducing the operational expenditures of the Power grid.

Green Technologies
Green antennas and green electronics: Green Antennas where antennas act as
both transmitters and receivers of electromagnetic energy as well as solar energy
should be designed and used.
Lead free electronics should be used in telecommunication devices to promote the
idea of green wireless communications.
Telecommuting rather than Commuting: Usage of telecommuting through
teleconferences, videoconferences etc rather than personal commuting should be
adopted to save time, money as well as reducing the vehicular traffic.

Conclusion

Green wireless communication systems turns out to be more and more vital as
wireless networks are becoming ubiquitous.
Green Wireless communications will provide energy efficient communications
through reduced emissions from base station side as well as mobile stations.
Green wireless communication is the part of Corporate Social Responsibility which
strives to reduce carbon footprint and GHG to provide green ICT
The integration of different energy efficient technologies like Green BTS, Green
manufacturing, Green Handover, Green antennas, Green electronics and Smart Grid
solutions will create accord between human being and nature.

References
1. India: Greenhouse Gas Emissions 2007, (2010) Ministry of Environment and Forests, Govt of
India.
2. Mr. Gunter Schmitt, EL TEK V ALERE Deutschland GmbH, Fankfurt,The Green Base Station,
2010 IEEE 26th Convention of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in Israel.
3. Sheeba RS, Bealuah DPM, Maheshwari R(2007) Mobile Communication Using Solar Energy
Resource, IET-UK International conference on Information and Communication Technology
in Electrical Science, 2007.
4. Gan R, Shilo S, Ezri D(2010) Green Handover- a New Handover Mechanism That Minimizes
Radiation from Mobile Devices. Electrical and Electronics Engineers in Israel, 2010 IEEE 26th
Convention of Green air wireless.
5. Tanaka M, Suzuki Y, Araki K, Suzuki R(1995) Microstrip antenna with solar cells for
microsatellites. Electron Lett 31:5-6.
6. TRAI consultation paper on Green Telecommunication, India.
7. Lipi K. Chhaya, Green Wireless Communication, Journal of Telecommunication Systems
Management 2012, 1:3