ECO6G: Energy and Cost Analysis for Network Slicing Deployment in Beyond 5G Networks

Fifth-generation (5G) wireless technology promises to be the critical enabler of use cases far beyond smartphones and other connected devices. This next-generation 5G wireless standard represents the changing face of connectivity by enabling elevated levels of automation through continuous optimization of several Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) such as latency, reliability, connection density, and energy efficiency. Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) must promote and implement innovative technologies and solutions to reduce network energy consumption while delivering high-speed and low-latency services to deploy energy-efficient 5G networks with a reduced carbon footprint. This research evaluates an energy-saving method using data-driven learning through load estimation for Beyond 5G (B5G) networks. The proposed 'ECO6G' model utilizes a supervised Machine Learning (ML) approach for forecasting traffic load and uses the estimated load to evaluate the energy efficiency and OPEX savings. The simulation results demonstrate a comparative analysis between the traditional time-series forecasting methods and the proposed ML model that utilizes learned parameters. Our ECO6G dataset is captured from measurements on a real-world operational 5G base station (BS). We showcase simulations using our ECO6G model for a given dataset and demonstrate that the proposed ECO6G model is accurate within $4.3 million over 100,000 BSs over 5 years compared to three other models that would increase OPEX cost from $370 million to $1.87 billion during varying network load scenarios against other data-driven and statistical learning models.