A Unified E2E Energy Efficiency Testing Framework for Open RAN
2026-06-01 • Networking and Internet Architecture
Networking and Internet Architecture
AI summaryⓘ
The authors talk about how it's hard to fairly compare energy efficiency (EE) between different hardware and software used in mobile networks, especially for the Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) setup. They looked at existing rules and found that there isn't a standard way to test energy use from start to finish. To fix this, they created a new testing system that measures how well software applications can save energy by turning cells on and off, using real network data and a simulator. Their tests showed this approach can improve energy efficiency by up to 57% compared to usual methods.
Energy EfficiencyOpen Radio Access Network (O-RAN)HardwareSoftwarexApprAppCell On/Off SwitchingRAN EmulatorMobile Network Operator (MNO)Benchmarking
Authors
Marcin Hoffmann, Marcin Dryjański, Adrian Kliks, Andreas Gladisch, Ajesh Pulyaar Keerthi, Mohammadreza Razmi, Heiko Lehmann
Abstract
Energy efficiency (EE) is one of the key challenges for contemporary and future mobile networks, including within the Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) architecture. However, there is a significant gap in common procedures for comparing the EE of both hardware (HW) and software (SW) solutions offered by various vendors. Usually, EE improvements of both SW and HW solutions are demonstrated in a specific scenario defined by individual vendors avoiding comparisons and benchmarking under various network conditions. This paper outlines the need for unified end-to-end (E2E) EE testing for O-RAN. First, it analyzes the standards to identify missing parts. Based on the analysis, a novel O-RAN E2E EE Testing framework is proposed. The framework aims to test the EE of the xApp/rApp pair cooperating on the cell on/off switching using a commercial RAN emulator and real-world network topology data from a mobile network operator (MNO). The test results show up to 57% improvement in EE compared to the baseline.