PRESS RELEASE: In recent days, Northwestern China has seen the first deployment of Huawei’s green antennas. By improving base station energy efficiency, the green antennas can lower down the power requirement by 2 dB while keeping the same coverage. The average site-wide energy savings can reach 20%. This brings operators the benefits of greater energy efficiency in their 5G networks while also furthering the national carbon peak and carbon neutrality strategy.
The widespread adoption of 5G multi-band and multi-port antennas, driven by growing subscriber numbers and increasing network requirements, has resulted in an exponential increase in the power consumption of base stations. This has made energy efficiency, high-quality user experience, and sustainable network development near-ubiquitous requirements of the communications industry.
A conventional six-band antenna contains 100 meters of cabling, resulting in noticeable feeder loss. This is a long-standing problem that needs to be addressed, since antennas are the last element in a wireless RF system. In answer to this, Huawei has launched its energy-efficient antenna architecture solution — the first in the industry to eliminate internal cables from antennas and thus greatly improve the energy conversion efficiency of RF systems. To avoid the need for pollution-causing electroplating and ensure high precision and consistency, Huawei employed an automatic laser welding technology previously unseen in antenna manufacturing.
In antenna tests, sites upgraded with green antennas can have higher RF energy efficiency, meaning significantly lower energy consumption without compromising coverage. According to the live-network test data, these antennas can reduce RRU power output by about 20% while maintaining the same user-perceived rate and coverage. Deploying full-band green antennas that support 700 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, and FA at a single site can save more than 7500 kWh of electricity annually, which is equivalent to reducing carbon emissions by more than 1600 kg. In addition, Huawei’s green antennas allow operators to choose between providing better user experience while maintaining the same level of power consumption and lowering their power consumption while maintaining the same level of user experience. Compared to older antenna solutions with the same RRU power output, Huawei’s green antennas can improve network coverage by about 1.5 dB to 3 dB. This marks a breakthrough in reducing power consumption of RF systems.
Huawei will continue to strive for antenna innovation and green industry development, doing its part for the planet by decarbonizing 5G networks with antennas that are eco-friendly while also being easy to deploy and delivering leading performance to end users.