China Mobile and ZTE have signed a new collaboration aimed at enhancing 5G network energy efficiency.
At a seminar on energy-saving technologies for 5G-oriented 3D-multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) and small cells, the two Chinese companies agreed to promote adoption of an energy-saving network architecture and technical solutions.
ZTE is developing energy efficiency techniques for its pre-5G portfolio, including its Access Cloud Engine (ACE), a solution proposed to meet the demands of future wireless access network services.
ACE supports mobile edge computing and flexible deployment of services as well as multi-site collaboration and multi-system integration, and wireless resources can be enabled and disabled according to service distribution and feature changes, potentially reducing energy consumption in 5G networks.
At the base station level, ZTE has proposed a range of energy efficiency techniques for enhancing the efficiency of Massive MIMO base stations. ZTE has also proposed an energy-saving control strategy for multi-layer hybrid network coverage scenarios based on service changes.
ZTE planning director for TDD products Zhang Shizhuang said the collaboration with China Mobile could lead to more innovations on 5G energy efficiency.
“ZTE is willing to work with the partners in the industry chain to build more energy-efficient networks from the six perspectives of architecture evolution, networking, energy-saving technologies, application scenarios, new base stations, and chip evolution, laying a solid foundation for large-scale commercial use of 5G networks," he said.