Power supply for Huawei 5G base stations

The power consumption of a single 5G station is 2.5 to 3.5 times higher than that of a single 4G station. The main factor behind this increase in 5G power consumption is the high power usage of the active antenna unit (AAU). Under a full workload, a single station uses nearly 3700W.

Based on the concept of Bit Manages Watt, 5G power solutions use AI and Cloud technologies to implement multi-level intelligent collaboration between power supply and site devices, as well as power supply and network devices. Functional power supplies develop into intelligent ones, which greatly reduce the CAPEX and OPEX of sites.

A 5G base station is mainly composed of the baseband unit (BBU) and the AAU — in 4G terms, the AAU is the remote radio unit (RRU) plus antenna. The role of the BBU is to handle baseband digital signal processing, while the AAU converts the baseband digital signal into an analog signal, and then modulates it into a high-frequency radio signal.

In the 5G era, the requirements for service continuity and reliability of the power supplies and backup power of small sites are increasing. Backup power ports are required to support on-demand power backup. Traditional power supplies and backup power cannot meet the requirements of the 5G era.

As the power consumption of 5G sites increases, the traditional backup power strategies, systems and carriers will also need to be revamped. In addition, while the density of the traditional lead-acid battery is low, they are heavy and large in size. Some sites may have difficulty in accommodating the large weight and size of the lead-acid battery.

This technique reduces opex by putting a base station into a “sleep mode,” with only the essentials remaining powered on. Pulse power leverages 5G base stations' ability to analyze traffic loads. In 4G, radios are always on, even when traffic levels don't warrant it, such as transmitting reference signals to detect users in the middle of the night.