Ericsson and Telstra launch Automated Energy Saver for Smarter, Sustainable 5G Network Management
STOCKHOLM - Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) and Telstra announced the successful launch of the 5G Advanced Automated Energy Saver (AES), a first-of-its-kind energy management feature in the Southern Hemisphere, a press release stated by Ericsson.
This innovative solution enables Telstra to be able to manage network operations based on defined business intents in an advanced, intelligent and automatic fashion. Seamless customer experiences are maintained by optimizing resources and energy consumption on a real-time basis from observed traffic flows.
As the first 5G Advanced energy-saving feature deployed in Telstra’s network, AES represents the start towards a more advanced, intelligent and automated network that can enable more sustainable operations. By deploying intelligent systems that autonomously manage energy, Telstra continues to lead in network and service innovation while balancing energy savings with customer experience. AES is included in Ericsson's software solutions for 5G Advanced, prioritizing energy efficiency and management.
Intent-based automation, one of the key technological pillars of programmable networks, is a new operations paradigm where operators can use service-related metrics such as user throughput inputs to the radio access network rather than setting radio parameters manually. This makes AES, part of Ericsson’s 5G Advanced capabilities, a pivotal feature in the move toward programmable networks.
Energy efficiency features are activated or deactivated manually based on parameters that do not directly reflect customer experience.Furthermore, optimally setting the parameters manually at each individual site for that sweet spot between energy savings and network performance is extremely challenging for Communication Service Providers (CSPs) today. This makes it a perfect use case for intent-based automation.
AES in the first release orchestrates based on real-time data, and optimizes NR Massive MIMO Sleep function by dynamically finding ideal benchmarks for activating or deactivating antenna branches. This ensures that, where possible, user experience is maintained, and energy saved during both low-traffic and high demand. Unlike previous manual solutions, AES makes it possible to easily set the desired level of user experience on a node, enabling automatic and continuously optimized feature parameters helping Telstra make its network more efficient,contributing to its sustainability goals without compromising the service quality or network performance.
Ericsson's strategic partnership with Telstra is vital in the transition towards programmable, intelligent, performance-based networks. This collaboration leverages Ericsson's advanced technology and expertise in network automation to support Telstra's vision of an efficient and sustainable 5G infrastructure. Together, they are not only implementing energy-saving features like AES but also evaluating other automation use cases, such as Automated Carrier Aggregation.
Sri Amirthalingam, Telstra Network Engineering Executive said: “Our collaboration with Ericsson on the Automated Energy Saver (AES) is a key step to start the intent-driven ways of advanced, intelligent and automated networks. The AES feature is showing promising results as we test, validate and optimize the feature in our live commercial network. Our key objective in implementing intent-based solutions is to optimize performance without impacting the experiences of our customers. We look forward to working with Ericsson to introduce additional automated solutions that support our customer experience while improving the efficiency and sustainability of our 5G network.”
Emilio Romeo, Head of Ericsson Australia and New Zealand, commented: "As the demand for 5G services continues to grow, it is critical to ensure that we do so in a sustainable way. The introduction of the Automated Energy Saver (AES) for NR Massive MIMO Sleep in Telstra’s 5G network, demonstrates how we can balance network performance with environmental responsibility. This milestone reflects the importance of innovation in driving both sustainability and customer experience, showcasing the potential of intent based automation in 5G networks. Our collaboration with Telstra is key as we move into the next phase of 5G development, and we look forward to expanding these capabilities in the future.”
