US-20260129573-A1 - METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR NETWORK ENERGY REDUCTION

US20260129573A1US 20260129573 A1US20260129573 A1US 20260129573A1US-20260129573-A1

Abstract

Systems, methods and devices are provided for disabling at least one radio access network (RAN) cell of a group of active RAN cells to reduce energy and in response to disabling at least one active RAN cell, modifying a waveform or power of wireless RF signals used for communication between a wireless device and at least one of the remaining active RAN cells.

Inventors

Jasinder P. Singh

Assignees

T-MOBILE INNOVATIONS LLC

Dates

Publication Date: 20260507
Application Date: 20241107

Claims (20)

1 . A method, the method comprising: disabling at least one radio access network (RAN) cell of a group of active RAN cells to reduce energy; and in response to disabling at least one active RAN cell, modifying a waveform or power of wireless radio frequency (RF) signals used for communication between a wireless device and at least one of the remaining active RAN cells.
2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein modifying the power comprises modifying an uplink power class of uplink wireless RF signals transmitted by the wireless device to at least one of the remaining active RAN cells for receiving uplink data from the wireless device.
3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein modifying the uplink power class comprises changing from power class 2 mode (PC2) to power class 3 mode (PC3) for at least one of the remaining active RAN cells to receive uplink data from the wireless device.
4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein modifying the waveform of wireless RF signals comprises changing from a cyclic prefix orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (CP-OFDM) to a discrete Fourier transform spread OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM).
5 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising increasing energy output for downlink wireless RF signals of at least one of the remaining active RAN cells.
6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the energy increase to the downlink RF signals of at least one remaining active RAN cell is equal to half of an energy capacity of the at least one disabled RAN cell.
7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein modifying the waveform or power of wireless RF signals for communication between the wireless device and at the least one of the remaining active RAN cells is based on configuration parameters.
8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the configuration parameters are set by a policy control function (PCF).
9 . A system, the system comprising: a group of active radio access network (RAN) cells; and a computing device communicatively connected to the group of active RAN cells, the computing device configured to: disable at least one RAN cell of the group of active RAN cells; and in response to disabling at least one active RAN cell, modify a waveform or power of wireless radio frequency (RF) signals used for communication between a wireless device and at least one of the remaining active RAN cells.
10 . The system of claim 9 , wherein modifying the power comprises modifying an uplink power class of at least one of the remaining active RAN cells for receiving uplink data from the wireless device.
11 . The system of claim 10 , wherein modifying the uplink power class comprises changing from power class 2 mode (PC2) to power class 3 mode (PC3) for at least one of the remaining active RAN cells to receive uplink data from the wireless device.
12 . The system of claim 9 , wherein modifying the waveform of wireless RF signals comprises changing from a cyclic prefix orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (CP-OFDM) to a discrete Fourier transform spread OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM).
13 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the computing device is further configured to increase energy output for downlink wireless RF signals of at least one the remaining active RAN cells.
14 . The system of claim 13 , wherein the energy increase to the at least one remaining active RAN cell is equal to half of energy capacity of the at least one disabled RAN cell.
15 . The system of claim 9 , wherein modifying the waveform or power of wireless RF signals for communication between the wireless device and at the least one of the remaining active RAN cells is based on configuration parameters.
16 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions, when executed by at least one processor, configuring the at least one processor to: disable at least one radio access network (RAN) cell of a group of active RAN cells to reduce energy; and in response to disabling at least one active RAN cell, modify a waveform or power of wireless radio frequency (RF) signals used for communication between a wireless device and at least one of the remaining active RAN cells.
17 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions of claim 16 , wherein modifying the waveform of wireless RF signals comprises changing from a cyclic prefix orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (CP-OFDM) to a discrete Fourier transform spread OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM).
18 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions of claim 16 , modifying the power comprises modifying an uplink power class of at least one of the remaining active RAN cells for receiving uplink data from a wireless device.
19 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions of claim 18 , wherein modifying a power class of at least one of the remaining active RAN cells from power class 2 mode (PC2) to power class 3 mode (PC3) for receiving uplink data from the wireless device.
20 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions of claim 16 , wherein modifying the waveform or power of wireless RF signals for communication between the wireless device and at the least one of the remaining active RAN cells is based on configuration parameters.

Description

TECHNICAL BACKGROUND Components of a wireless network, such as radio access network (RAN) cells, consume vast amounts of electricity, even when utilization of those components is lower, such as during times of the day when data traffic is lower. Often those components need to stay on even during low utilization to maintain service quality for the connected devices utilizing the system. OVERVIEW Exemplary embodiments described herein include systems, methods, and processing nodes for network energy reduction. An exemplary method includes disabling at least one radio access network (RAN) cell of a group of active RAN cells to reduce energy and, in response to disabling at least one active RAN cell, modifying a waveform or power of wireless radio frequency (RF) signals used for communication between a wireless device and at least one of the remaining active RAN cells. Further exemplary embodiments include a system for network energy reduction. The system includes a group of RAN cells and a computing device communicatively connected to the plurality of RAN cells, the computing device configured to disable at least one RAN cell of the group of active RAN cells and, in response to disabling at least once active RAN cell, modify a waveform or power of wireless RF signals used for communication between a wireless device and at least one of the remaining active RAN cells. In yet a further exemplary embodiment, a non-transitory computer readable medium is provided. The non-transitory computer-readable medium stores instructions, when executed by a processor, configuring the processor to disable at least one RAN cell of a group of RAN cells to reduce energy and, in response to disabling at least one active RAN cell, modify a waveform or power of wireless RF signals used for communication between a wireless device and at least one of the remaining active RAN cells. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary system for network transmission management in accordance with disclosed embodiments. FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary method for network energy reduction in accordance with disclosed embodiments. FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary method for network energy reduction in accordance with disclosed embodiments. FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary method for network energy reduction in accordance with disclosed embodiments. FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary method for network energy reduction in accordance with disclosed embodiments. FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a processing node in accordance with aspects of this disclosure. FIG. 7 illustrates an example of a computing device in accordance with aspects of this disclosure. DETAILED DESCRIPTION During times when utilization of the network is lower, reducing usage of some components of a network can save energy that would otherwise be wasted. However, turning off some of those components will negatively affect the service being provided to devices utilizing the network. For example, turning off RAN cells of the network may increase the signal-to-Interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) and reduce coverage due to the increased noise floor for the remaining active RAN cells. As modern 5G networks enable dynamic changes to waveform and power class for devices connected to the network, the network may be able to maintain quality of service to connected devices when turning off components by modifying these parameters. Exemplary embodiments described herein include methods and systems for reducing energy consumption by a network by disabling at least one RAN cell and based on that disabling the at least one cell, modifying a waveform or power for the remaining active RAN cells. For example, the network may modify the waveform for the remaining active RAN cells to a waveform that is less energy intensive. In instances, the network may allocate a portion of the capacity of the disabled RAN cell to active cells by increasing the energy output to active cells. Although the descriptions provided herein may be in the context of certain radio access technologies, networks, and network topologies, such as 5G/NR mobile communications, the proposed concepts, schemes, and any variations thereof may be implemented in, for and by other types of radio access technologies, networks, and network topologies. Such radio access technologies, networks, and network topologies may include, for example and without limitation, Long-Term Evolution (LTE), Internet-of-Things (IoT), Narrow Band Internet of Things (NB-IoT), vehicle-to-everything (V2X), fixed wireless internet, and non-terrestrial network (NTN) communications. Thus, the scope of the disclosure is not limited to the examples described herein. These and other examples will be described in greater detail below in relation to FIGS. 1-7. FIG. 1 depicts an exemplary system 100 for network energy reduction. System 100 includes a communication network 101, a core network 102 and a radio access network (RAN) 170, including at least one