The radio access network consumes, by far, the majority of power needed to operate mobile networks. Given the reality operators are facing—pressing needs to reduce operational costs while working towards long-term climate action goals without sacrificing network performance—more energy efficient RAN is a key strategic priority.

And beyond cyclical hardware upgrades that deliver incremental energy efficiency gains, the ability to collect, parse and action RAN data to right-size network resource provisioning is a job well-suited to artificial intelligence. AI-enabled RAN can understand when to scale down resource allocation to meet actual demand rather than maintaining peak load. And from there, the opportunities to infuse AI into the RAN for both internal-facing efficiencies and monetization of advanced services are quite material.

Read this report now to explore the different use cases of how AI will improve energy efficiency in the RAN.