KARACHI:
With the increase in the use of communication technology, energy consumption and threats to the environment have risen. The information and communication technology sector consume around 5% of the global energy causing 3% of the overall carbon emissions. Due to higher power consumption, carbon emissions into the atmosphere have intensified, which has led to the advent of green communication in wireless networks. Carbon emissions are mainly associated with off-grid sites that provide coverage for remote areas. Most such sites are powered by diesel-power generators.
Green communication is the practice of selecting energy-efficient communications and networking technologies and products, minimising resources used whenever possible in all branches of communication. To save energy, sleep mode techniques can be used. In this mode, the power consumption of the mobile networks is reduced by selectively turning either base stations or their transceivers to the sleep mode. Another way is to employ cell zooming techniques. In this case, when the traffic load is low in the central base station, it could be switched off while users are given coverage by cell zooming the neighbouring cells. Automatically switching off the unnecessary transmitter when the traffic is low and switching on the required transmitter when the traffic increases is another method. Radio resources management is yet another way to save wireless communication energy by maintaining the service grade.
The ongoing evolution journey that started from 1G and is continuing to 5G and oversubscription of users requires us to be in touch with all the relevant environmental issues. To improve research on green communication, the government should support higher education institutes to research, innovate, and come up with solutions.
Intikhab Ulfat
Karachi
Published in The Express Tribune, August 20th, 2022.
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