Perspective of Station Uptime on Modeling and Management of the Base Station Energy Consumption

Abstract

The network availability of the wireless network can be viewed as broader concept of network reliability. Reliability is a unique quality of wireless network and it is regarded as key parameter for business success of the telecom service providers. The network availability however is often compromised with outages caused by various factors and amongst the factors, inadequate energy at the base stations is the major outage-contributing factor. Due to unreliable electrical grid supply at many base stations, diesel generators are deployed to the stations as an alternative source of energy.  The diesel generators incur high operating expenses. This paper presents a quantitative approach for measurement and estimation of diesel fuel consumption based on uptime hours of various equipments installed at the base station site. It also introduces a new parameter called energy conservation factor, which determines amount of energy transfer to the battery-bank while charging the battery with power from an external source such as grid, diesel generator.  This model while presenting a new management perspective for effective utilization of the conserved energy of the battery-bank also attempts to reduce waste such as fuel losses and pilferages. We also describe how the method introduced in this paper can assist management in planning and preparation of fuel budget for a particular base station or the entire wireless network.

Keywords: Wireless network availability; Network reliability; Network outage; Base station site; Conserved energy; Energy conservation factor