Content for  TS 22.261  Word version:  20.2.0

Energy consumption can be monitored and considered through O&M as part of network operations [47], as well as a service criteria. For best-effort traffic, that is, without QoS criteria, policies can be defined to limit energy use for services. This is not in conflict with the principle that performance policies will not be traded off for energy efficiency, since best-effort service has no performance guarantees. Specifically, best-effort traffic can be subject to a policy that limits the maximum energy consumption over time, or further constrained by location (so that the energy consumption limit only applies when used in a specified service area.) Additionally, policies can be defined with a maximum energy credit limit, e.g. for best-effort services to limit the total amount of energy consumption according to an energy charging rate. These policies expand the options of subscription policies to control energy consumption in the 5G system.

The following requirements are subject to regulatory requirements, in particular to keep delivering critical services such as emergency calls, PWS, MPS and MCS to the extent possible. Subject to operator's policy, the 5G system shall support subscription policies that define a maximum energy credit limit for services without QoS criteria. Subject to operator's policy, the 5G system shall support a means to associate energy consumption information with charging information based on subscription policies for services without QoS criteria. Subject to operator's policy, the 5G system shall support a mechanism to perform energy consumption credit limit control for services without QoS criteria. Subject to operator's policy, the 5G system shall support a means to define subscription policies and means to enforce the policy that define a maximum energy consumption (i.e. quantity of energy for a specified period of time) for services without QoS criteria. The 5G system shall provide a mechanism to include Energy related information as part of charging information. Subject to operator policy and agreement with 3rd party, the 5G system shall provide a mechanism to support the selection of an application server based on energy related information associated with a set of application servers. Subject to user consent and operator policy, 5G system shall be able to provide means to modify a communication service based on energy related information criteria based on subscription policies. Subject to user consent, operator policy and regulatory requirements, the 5G system shall be able to provide means to operate part or the whole network according to energy consumption requirements, which may be based on subscription policies or requested by an authorized 3rd party. Subject to operator's policy, regulatory requirements and user consent, the 5G network shall enable the operator to provide means to degrade service performance (e.g. QoS, bitrate) to meet energy rationing constraints. Subject to operator's policy, regulatory requirements and user consent, the 5G network shall support subscription policies that include alternative (i.e. degraded) service performance (e.g. QoS parameters, maximum bitrate) of services with QoS criteria for energy saving reasons. Subject to operator's policy, the 5G network shall be able to support a means to target per UE energy saving actions, based on subscription policies. Subject to operators' policy, regulatory requirements, 5G network shall provide mechanisms to adjust communication service (e.g. user plane path, suitable Service Hosting Environment, defer background traffic delivery) considering the change of energy supply mix of the network as one of the factors. Subject to operator's policy, regulatory requirements and user consent, the 5G network shall enable to control the access of UEs to the network (e.g. block traffic, disable specific application etc) based on the energy-related characteristics of the network. Subject to operator's policy and regulatory requirements, the 5G network shall be able to trigger charging events corresponding to an impacted UE when degrading performance of services with QoS criteria (e.g. to a lower bitrate) in order to achieve energy saving. Subject to user consent, operator policy and regulatory requirements, the 5G network shall be able to assist an authorized 3rd party to identify a set of target UEs for whom to adjust the provided application service, considering criteria such as the current and future (e.g. predicted) energy-related characteristics of their serving network.

Supporting different energy states is beneficial for verticals and operators to save energy according to different working status of telecommunication equipment and manufacturing.

The 5G system shall support different energy states of network elements and network functions. 5G system shall support dynamic changes of energy states of network elements and network functions. The 5G system shall support different charging mechanisms based on the different energy states of network elements and network functions.

Different levels of monitoring and measurement related to energy consumption and efficiency bring more support in energy efficiency and energy saving. In this section, monitoring and measurement related to energy consumption and efficiency include network functions in NPN and also all kinds of NG-RAN deployment scenarios.

The level of accuracy of attribution and associated time granularity can impact what can be done with the energy-related information. The energy-related information considered in the following requirements only relates to the use of the communication service provided by a telecom operator to its home network subscribers, as a single part of the end-to-end service chain. The following requirements do not apply to the energy-related information of other providers outside of 3GPP scope potentially involved in the same service chain (e.g. video streaming providers). Subject to operator's policy, the 5G network shall support energy consumption monitoring at per network slice and per subscriber granularity. Subject to operator's policy and agreement with 3rd party, the 5G system shall be able to monitor energy consumption for serving this 3rd party. Subject to operator policy and regulatory requirements, the 5G system shall be able to monitor the energy consumption for serving the 3rd party, together with the network performance statistic information for the services provided by that network, related to same time interval e.g. hourly or daily.

Information related to energy consumption and efficiency is not only necessary for network internal optimization, but also will benefit the service adjustment for 3rd party. The performance requirements related to the exposure of network energy-related characteristics such as energy consumption and CO2e emissions depending on the target use case are documented in clause 7.13.

Refer to clause 6.15a.4.2 of the present document for requirements related to monitoring and measurement. Subject to operator's policy and agreement with 3rd party, the 5G system shall be able to expose information on energy consumption for serving this 3rd party. Subject to operator's policy, agreement with 3rd party and consent by the customer, the 5G system shall be able to expose the network performance statistic information (e.g. the data rate, packet delay and packet loss) together with energy consumption information resulting from service provided to the customer, to the authorized third party, related to the same time interval e.g. hourly or daily. Subject to operator's policy, the 5G system shall support a means to expose energy consumption to authorized third parties for services, including energy consumption information related to the condition of energy credit limit (e.g. when the energy consumption is reaching the energy credit limit). Subject to operator's policy, the 5G system shall provide means for the trusted 3rd party, to configure which network performance statistic information (e.g. the data rate, packet delay and packet loss) for the communication service provided to the 3rd party, needs to be exposed along with the information on energy consumption for serving this 3rd party. Based on operator's policy and agreement with 3rd party, the 5G system shall be able to expose energy consumption information and prediction on energy consumption of the 5G network per application service to the 3rd party. Subject to operator's policy and agreement with 3rd party, the 5G system shall support a mechanism for the 3rd party to provide current or predicted energy consumption information over a specific period of time. Subject to operator's policy, regulatory requirements and user consent, the 5G network shall be able to collect, and expose to authorized 3rd parties, the carbon equivalent emissions resulting from the use of the communication service, related to one or more specific UEs of home network subscribers (e.g. fleet of vehicles, IoT devices, company phones etc), over a specific time period (e.g. month etc). Subject to operator's policy and user consent, the 5G network shall be able to expose to an authorized 3rd party information about network energy consumption and carbon equivalent emissions for a specific service data flow. Subject to operator's policy, regulatory requirements and user consent, the 5G system shall be able to expose to an authorized 3rd party the current and expected energy-related characteristics of the network resources used in serving a UE. Subject to operator's policy, regulatory requirements and user consent, the 5G system shall be able to provide UEs with information related to the current energy-related characteristics of their serving network.

This clause addresses requirements to the 5G system that leverage energy-related information (e.g., energy consumption, energy efficiency), amongst others (e.g., network load), as criteria for network internal optimization actions targeting energy savings, within and across operators in a localized (i.e., geographically bound) and/or temporal (i.e., time bound) manner. One of the strategies to save energy within mobile networks is to shut down some RAN nodes at times of low usage. Eventually only one communication service could be used on a local basis among operators at times of low usage, as further energy saving gain to be exploited. Agreements could be put in place between operators so that in the low load periods (e.g., nighttime) only one of multiple mobile networks may be active in an area and will provide communication service to the subscribers of all networks, whereas the other networks can apply cell shutdown of their own infrastructure to obtain network energy savings. Alternatively, based on risks of power outage nation-wide/region-wide, regulators could ask operators to "optimize" their coverage e.g., shutdown some nodes in overlapping coverage areas during energy peak hours and/or in specific geographical areas, whilst still guaranteeing minimum coverage/service (in particular to fullfill regulatory requirements for services such as emergency calls, PWS, MPS and MCS). This can also apply between NPN operators and/or with PLMN operators.

Subject to regulatory requirements and operators' policies, the 5G system shall enable an operator to temporarily serve UEs of other operators within a geographical area for the purpose of saving energy of the other operators.