SIST ES 203 700 V1.2.1:2025
(Main)Environmental Engineering (EE) - Sustainable power feeding solutions for 5G network
Environmental Engineering (EE) - Sustainable power feeding solutions for 5G network
The present document defines power feeding solutions for 5G, converged wireless and wireline access equipment and network, taking into consideration their enhanced requirements on service availability and reliability, the new deployment scenarios, together with the environmental impact of the proposed solutions. The minimum requirements of different solutions including power feeding structures, components, backup, safety requirements, environmental conditions are also defined. The present document is applicable to powering of both mobile and fixed access network elements, in particular on equipment that have similar configurations and needs. The development of 5G networks will create a new scenario in which the density of radio cells will increase considerably, together with the increase of wireline network equipment that are going to be installed in the vicinity to the users, thereby creating the need to define new solutions for powering that will be environmentally friendly, sustainable, dependable, smart and visible remotely. The -48 V DC, up to 400 V DC local and remote power solutions defined respectively in ETSI EN 300 132-2 [2], ETSI EN 302 099 [i.10] and ETSI EN 300 132-3 [3] or Recommendation ITU-T L.1200 [i.13] will be considered as the standards in force for power facilities, together with IEEE 802.3 [i.18] (PoE).
Okoljski inženiring (EE) - Sonaravne rešitve napajanja za omrežje 5G
Ta dokument opredeljuje rešitve napajanja za omrežje 5G, konvergentno brezžično in žično dostopovno opremo in omrežje, pri čemer upošteva njihove povečane zahteve glede razpoložljivosti in zanesljivosti storitev, nove scenarije uvajanja ter vpliv predlaganih rešitev na okolje. Opredeljene so tudi minimalne zahteve za različne rešitve, vključno s strukturami napajanja, komponentami, varnostnim kopiranjem, varnostnimi zahtevami in okoljskimi pogoji. Ta dokument se uporablja za napajanje elementov mobilnega in fiksnega dostopovnega omrežja, zlasti za opremo s podobnimi konfiguracijami in potrebami. Z razvojem omrežij 5G bo ustvarjen nov scenarij, v katerem se bo gostota radijskih celic znatno povečala, skupaj s povečanjem žične omrežne opreme, ki bo nameščena v bližini uporabnikov, zaradi česar bo treba opredeliti nove rešitve za napajanje, ki bodo okolju prijazne, sonaravne, zanesljive, pametne in vidne na daljavo. Lokalne in oddaljene rešitve napajanja z napetostjo od –48 V DC do 400 V DC, opredeljene v standardih ETSI EN 300 132-2 [2], ETSI EN 302 099 [i.10] in ETSI EN 300 132-3 [3] oziroma priporočilu ITU-T L.1200 [i.13], bodo skupaj s standardom IEEE 802.3 [i.18] (PoE) obravnavane kot veljavni standardi za elektroenergetske objekte.
General Information
Standards Content (Sample)
Final draft ETSI ES 203 700 V1.1.7 (2025-07)
ETSI STANDARD
Environmental Engineering (EE);
Sustainable power feeding solutions for 5G network
2 Final draft ETSI ES 203 700 V1.1.7 (2025-07)
Reference
RES/EE-02110
Keywords
5G, cable, energy efficiency, hybrid, power,
remote, sustainability
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ETSI
3 Final draft ETSI ES 203 700 V1.1.7 (2025-07)
Contents
Intellectual Property Rights . 5
Foreword . 5
Modal verbs terminology . 5
Executive summary . 5
Introduction . 6
1 Scope . 7
2 References . 7
2.1 Normative references . 7
2.2 Informative references . 8
3 Definition of terms, symbols and abbreviations . 9
3.1 Terms . 9
3.2 Symbols . 9
3.3 Abbreviations . 9
4 5G networks . 10
4.1 5G Network general description . 10
4.2 Cells coverage and impacts on powering strategy . 12
4.3 Type of 5G network and impacts on power load, power profile and feeding solution . 14
5 Powering solutions . 16
5.0 General . 16
5.1 Convergence and Core Room Power Supply . 16
5.1.1 Scenario 1: -48 V DC Power Supply Solution . 16
5.1.2 Scenario 2: up to 400 V DC Power Supply Solution . 17
5.1.3 5G Power Supply Solution for aggregation and core equipment room . 17
5.2 Impact of 5G in C-RAN&D-RAN Sites . 18
5.2.1 Changes due to 5G implementation . 18
5.2.2 Construction and Modernization Challenges Posed by 5G Network Evolution . 18
5.2.3 Problems to Be Addressed by 5G Power Systems . 19
5.2.3.1 Low Cost Deployment . 19
5.2.3.2 Fast Construction . 19
5.2.3.3 Efficient and Energy Saving . 19
5.2.3.4 Smooth Evolution . 19
5.2.3.5 Simple O&M . 20
5.2.4 C-RAN & D-RAN Powering Scenario . 20
5.2.4.1 Networking diagram of powering scenario . 20
5.2.5 5G Power Solution for C-RAN&D-RAN site . 21
5.2.6 Intelligent Features for C-RAN&D-RAN site . 23
5.2.6.1 Intelligent Peak Shaving . 23
5.2.6.2 Advance Sleep/Hibernation Mode function . 24
5.3 Intelligent Management . 25
5.3.0 General . 25
5.3.1 Power availability Management . 25
5.3.2 SEE Management . 25
5.3.3 Remote Maintenance . 26
5.3.4 Intelligent Security . 26
5.3.5 Intelligent Energy Storage System . 26
5.4 Renewable energy solution for 5G base stations . 27
5.5 Hybrid architecture scenario, with integration of power and optical networks . 28
6 Energy Efficiency . 32
6.1 Power equipment energy efficiency . 32
6.2 NE static and dynamic power requirement management and impact on powering . 32
7 Dependability, reliability and maintenance . 32
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4 Final draft ETSI ES 203 700 V1.1.7 (2025-07)
8 Environmental impact . 33
Annex A (informative): Which power and where for 5G cells . 34
Annex B (informative): Method of optimization of equipment, power and energy . 35
Annex C (informative): Example of powering requirement definition on site and remote
powering area . 37
Annex D (informative): Example of required output voltage variation under correlation
models between different loads and different cable lengths . 38
Annex E (informative): Digital Reconfigurable Battery solution for 5G base stations. 40
Annex F (informative): Bibliography . 42
History . 43
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5 Final draft ETSI ES 203 700 V1.1.7 (2025-07)
Intellectual Property Rights
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Foreword
This final draft ETSI Standard (ES) has been produced by ETSI Technical Committee Environmental Engineering (EE),
and is now submitted for the ETSI Membership Approval Procedure (MAP).
Modal verbs terminology
In the present document "shall", "shall not", "should", "should not", "may", "need not", "will", "will not", "can" and
"cannot" are to be interpreted as described in clause 3.2 of the ETSI Drafting Rules (Verbal forms for the expression of
provisions).
"must" and "must not" are NOT allowed in ETSI deliverables except when used in direct citation.
Executive summary
The present document defines power feeding solutions for 5G, converged wireless and wireline access equipment and
network, taking into consideration their enhanced requirements on service availability and reliability, the new
deployment scenarios, together with the environmental impact of the proposed solutions.
The minimum requirements of different solutions including power feeding structures, components, backup, safety
requirements, environmental conditions are also defined.
The present document is applicable to powering of both mobile and fixed access network elements, in particular on
equipment that have similar configurations and needs.
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6 Final draft ETSI ES 203 700 V1.1.7 (2025-07)
Introduction
Mobile and fixed networks are evolving towards ultra-broadband, improved performance and coverage, with 5G and
beyond, are going to converge. The use of much broader frequency ranges, up to 60 GHz, where radio propagation is an
issue, is going to impact the network deployment topologies. In particular, the use of higher frequencies and the need to
cover hot/black spots and indoor locations, will make it necessary to deploy much denser amount of radio nodes.
5G is introducing major improvements on Massive MIMO, IoT, low latency, unlicensed spectrum, and with V2x for the
vehicular market. Support of some of these services will have a relevant effect on the power ratings and the energy
consumption at the radio base station.
A major new service area of 5G and beyond impacting the powering and backup will be the Ultra Reliable Low Latency
Communication (URLLC) as its support will increase the service availability demands by many orders of magnitude.
Supporting such high availability goals will be partly reached through redundant network coverage, but a main support
will have to come through newly designed powering architectures. This will be made even more challenging as 5G will
require the widespread introduction of distributed small cells. ETSI TS 110 174-2-2 [i.5] analyses the implications and
indicates possible solutions to fulfil such high demanding availability goals.
There is a need to define sustainable and smart powering solutions, able to adapt to the present mobile network
technologies and able to evolve to adapt to their evolution. The flexibility would be needed at level of power interface,
power consumption, architecture tolerant to power delivery point changes and including control-monitoring.
This means that it should include from the beginning appropriate modularity and reconfiguration features for local
powering and energy storage and for remote powering solutions including power lines sizing, input and output
conversion power and scalable sources.
The present document was developed jointly by ETSI TC EE and ITU-T Study Group 5. It is published respectively by
ITU and ETSI as Recommendation ITU-T L.1210 [i.7] and ETSI ES 203 700 (the present document), which are
technically equivalent.
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7 Final draft ETSI ES 203 700 V1.1.7 (2025-07)
1 Scope
The present document defines power feeding solutions for 5G, converged wireless and wireline access equipment and
network, taking into consideration their enhanced requirements on service availability and reliability, the new
deployment scenarios, together with the environmental impact of the proposed solutions.
The minimum requirements of different solutions including power feeding structures, components, backup, safety
requirements, environmental conditions are also defined.
The present document is applicable to powering of both mobile and fixed access network elements, in particular on
equipment that have similar configurations and needs.
The development of 5G networks will create a new scenario in which the density of radio cells will increase
considerably, together with the increase of wireline network equipment that are going to be installed in the vicinity to
the users, thereby creating the need to define new solutions for powering that will be environmentally friendly,
sustainable, dependable, smart and visible remotely.
The -48 V DC, up to 400 V DC local and remote power solutions defined respectively in ETSI EN 300 132-2 [2],
ETSI EN 302 099 [i.10] and ETSI EN 300 132-3 [3] or Recommendation ITU-T L.1200 [i.13] will be considered as the
standards in force for power facilities, together with IEEE 802.3 [i.18] (PoE).
2 References
2.1 Normative references
References are either specific (identified by date of publication and/or edition number or version number) or
non-specific. For specific references, only the cited version applies. For non-specific references, the latest version of the
referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
Referenced documents which are not found to be publicly available in the expected location might be found in the
ETSI docbox.
NOTE: While any hyperlinks included in this clause were valid at the time of publication, ETSI cannot guarantee
their long-term validity.
The following referenced documents are necessary for the application of the present document.
[1] ETSI EN 300 132-1 (V2.1.1) (03-2019): "Environmental Engineering (EE); Power supply
interface at the input to Information and Communication Technology (ICT) equipment; Part 1:
Alternating Current (AC)".
[2] ETSI EN 300 132-2 (V2.6.1) (04-2019):"Environmental Engineering (EE); Power supply interface
at the input of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) equipment; Part 2: -48 V
Direct Current (DC)".
[3] ETSI EN 300 132-3 (V2.3.1) (2023-01): "Environmental Engineering (EE); Power supply
interface at the input of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) equipment; Part 3: Up
to 400 V Direct Current (DC)".
[4] ETSI ES 203 199 (V1.3.1) (02-2015): "Environmental Engineering (EE); Methodology for
environmental Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Information and Communication Technology
(ICT) goods, networks and services".
[5] IEC 60695-11-20: "Fire hazard testing - Part 11-20: Test flames - 500 W flame test method".
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8 Final draft ETSI ES 203 700 V1.1.7 (2025-07)
2.2 Informative references
References are either specific (identified by date of publication and/or edition number or version number) or
non-specific. For specific references, only the cited version applies. For non-specific references, the latest version of the
referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
NOTE: While any hyperlinks included in this clause were valid at the time of publication, ETSI cannot guarantee
their long-term validity.
The following referenced documents may be useful in implementing an ETSI deliverable or add to the reader's
understanding, but are not required for conformance to the present document.
[i.1] Recommendation ITU-T Q.1743 (09/2016): "IMT-Advanced references to Release 11 of
LTE-Advanced evolved packet core network".
[i.2] ETSI ES 202 336-12: "Environmental Engineering (EE); Monitoring and control interface for
infrastructure equipment (power, cooling and building environment systems used in
telecommunication networks); Part 12: ICT equipment power, energy and environmental
parameters monitoring information model".
[i.3] ETSI EN 301 605 (V1.1.1) (10-2013): "Environmental Engineering (EE); Earthing and bonding of
400 V DC data and telecom (ICT) equipment".
[i.4] ETSI TS 122 261: "5G; Service requirements for next generation new services and markets (3GPP
TS 22.261)".
[i.5] ETSI TS 110 174-2-2: "Access, Terminals, Transmission and Multiplexing (ATTM); Sustainable
Digital Multiservice Cities; Broadband Deployment and Energy Management; Part 2: Multiservice
Networking Infrastructure and Associated Street Furniture; Sub-part 2: The use of lamp-posts for
hosting sensing devices and 5G networking".
[i.6] Recommendation ITU-T K.64 (06/2016): "Safe working practices for outside equipment installed
in particular environments".
[i.7] Void.
[i.8] EN 50173-1: "Information technology - Generic cabling systems - Part 1: General requirement",
(produced by CEN).
[i.9] IEEE 802.3cg™: "IEEE Approved Draft Standard for Ethernet Amendment 5: Physical Layer
Specifications and Management Parameters for 10 Mb/s Operation and Associated Power Delivery
over a Single Balanced Pair of Conductors".
[i.10] ETSI EN 302 099 ("Environmental Engineering (EE); Powering of equipment in access network".
[i.11] ETSI TS 103 553-1: "Environmental Engineering (EE); Innovative energy storage technology for
stationary use; Part 1: Overview".
[i.12] Recommendation ITU-T L.1001 (11/2012): "External universal power adapter solutions for
stationary information and communication technology devices".
[i.13] Recommendation ITU-T L.1200 (05/2012): "Direct current power feeding interface up to 400 V at
the input to telecommunication and ICT equipment".
[i.14] ETSI TS 103 553-1 (V1.1.1) (08-2019): "Environmental Engineering (EE); Innovative energy
storage technology for stationary use; Part 1: Overview".
[i.15] ETSI TS 103 553-2 (V1.1.1) (11-2021): "Environmental Engineering (EE); Innovative energy
storage technology for stationary use;Part 2: Battery".
[i.16] ETSI TS 103 553-3 (V1.1.1) (01-2020): "Environmental Engineering (EE); Innovative energy
storage technology for stationary use; Part 3: Supercapacitor".
[i.17] Recommendation ITU-T L.1350 (10/2016): "Energy efficiency metrics of a base station site".
[i.18] IEEE 802.3™-2018: "IEEE Standard for Ethernet".
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9 Final draft ETSI ES 203 700 V1.1.7 (2025-07)
[i.19] IEEE 802.3bt™-2018: "IEEE Standard for Ethernet Amendment 2: Physical Layer and
Management Parameters for Power over Ethernet over 4 pairs".
[i.20] A. Gupta, R. K. Jha: "A Survey of 5G Network: Architecture and Emerging Technologies".
[i.21] CableFree: "5G Frequency bands: Spectrum Allocations for Next-Gen LTE".
3 Definition of terms, symbols and abbreviations
3.1 Terms
For the purposes of the present document, the following terms apply:
cell: radio network object that can be uniquely identified by a user equipment from a (cell) identification that is
broadcasted over a geographical area from one UTRAN or GERAN access point
NOTE 1: A Cell in UTRAN is either FDD or TDD mode.
NOTE 2: As defined in Recommendation ITU-T Q.1743 [i.1].
cloud RAN: RAN functions are partially or completely centralized with two additional key features: pooling of
baseband/hardware resources, and virtualization through general-purpose processors
distributed RAN: network development where RAN processing is fully performed at the site as in 4G
macro cells: outdoor cells with a large cell radius
NOTE: As defined in Recommendation ITU-T Q.1743 [i.1].
micro cells: small cells
NOTE: As defined in Recommendation ITU-T Q.1743 [i.1].
pico cells: cells, mainly indoor cells, with a radius typically less than 50 m
NOTE: As defined in Recommendation ITU-T Q.1743 [i.1]
3.2 Symbols
For the purposes of the present document, the following symbols apply:
C Celsius
kW Kilo Watt
L Litre
l Length
m Milli
R Resistance
W Watt
Ω Ohm
σ Resistivity
3.3 Abbreviations
For the purposes of the present document, the following abbreviations apply:
5G Fifth Generation
AAU Active Antenna Unit
AC Alternating Current
Ah Ampere Hours
AI Artificial Intelligence
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10 Final draft ETSI ES 203 700 V1.1.7 (2025-07)
BBU Base Band Unit
BCS Battery Control System
BMS Battery Management System
BS Base Station
C-RAN Centralized or Cloud RAN
DC Direct Current
NOTE: Also when used as a suffix to units of measurement.
DG Diesel Generator
DOD Deep Of Discharge
DP Distribution Point
D-RAN Distributed RAN
DSLAM Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplier
EV Electrical Vehicle
FWA Fixed Wireless Access
GND GrouND
GPON Gigabit Passive Optical Network
Hetnets Heterogeneous network
ICT Information Communication Telecommunication
IoT Internet of Things
LFP Lithium Iron Phosphate
MEC Multi-access Edge Computing
MIMO Multi-Input Multi-Output
mmWaves millimetric Waves
MPPT Maximum Power Point Tracking
NE Network Element
OS Optical Splitter
PAV Power Availability Value
PN Power Node
PON Passive Optical Network
PS Power Splitter
PSU Power Supply Unit
PTU Power Transmitter Unit
PV PhotoVoltaic
PVC PolyVinyl Chloride
RAN Radio Access Network
REN Renewable ENergy
RF Radio Frequency
RRH Remote Radio Head
RRU Remote Radio Unit
SEE Site Energy Efficiency
SELV Safety Extra Low Voltage
SOC Status Of Charge
SOH Status Of Health
TDD Time Division Duplex
TTM Time To Market
U Unit
URLLC Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication
UTRAN Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network
UV UltraViolet
4 5G networks
4.1 5G Network general description
Figure 1 is presenting a general end-to-end schematics of 5G network to be powered.
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11 Final draft ETSI ES 203 700 V1.1.7 (2025-07)
It includes stationary and mobile equipment:
• Macro cell equipment BS for wide coverage. In most cases, they will be located in the same sites as the macro
BS of the previous mobile generations. The increased energy demand and the much higher availability need of
the 5G equipment will pose tough challenges to the powering infrastructure and will likely require its major
upgrade both on the power capabilities and the backup duration.
• Small cell, to cover small geographical area in indoor/outdoor applications, typically to satisfy data traffic
hot-spots, black-spots and to deliver services at very high frequencies (e.g. mmWaves) that could not be
supported just through macro BS installations. Small cells can be subdivided into:
- Micro cell - normally installed outdoors. Designed to support large number of users in high data traffic
areas, to solve coverage issues and to support very high frequency deployment. Capable to cover
medium/large cells size and suitable for application like smart cities, smart metro, etc.
- Pico cell - normally installed indoors. Suitable for enterprises, shopping centres, stadiums applications,
for extended network coverage and data throughput.
- Femto cell - basically small mobile base stations designed to provide extended coverage for residential
and SoHo applications. Poor signal strength from mobile operator's base stations can be solved using
Femtocell implementation. Femtocells are primarily introduced to offload network congestion, extend
coverage and increase data capacity to indoor users.
• IoT devices and concentrators.
• In network cloud distribution including edge computing.
Also Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) radio access solutions, typically in point-to-multipoint configuration with coverage
across macro and small cells schemes, will contribute to the evolution of ultra-broadband future networks.
Source: "A Survey of 5G Network: Architecture and Emerging Technologies" [i.20].
Figure 1: General principle of a 5G cellular network architecture with interconnectivity among
the different emerging technologies like Massive MIMO network, Cognitive Radio
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12 Final draft ETSI ES 203 700 V1.1.7 (2025-07)
4.2 Cells coverage and impacts on powering strategy
In the 4G era, a base station covers a radius of hundreds of metres, while a 5G base station operating at mmWave may
cover only 20 m to 40 m, needing a much higher number of equipment to be spread-out in the field to guarantee
appropriate coverage. More dense deployment will also be needed to cover high traffic areas (e.g. stadiums) and indoor
locations. That could result in much higher network development complexity and costs. In addition, the deployment of
additional base stations is difficult and the site resources are not easy to obtain. Therefore, 5G networks will see a major
development of small cells, in the form of small base stations as the basic unit for ultra-intensive networking, that is,
small base stations dense deployment. In the future, the most likely deployment mode for 5G base station construction
will be low-frequency wide area coverage (macro base station) + high-frequency deep coverage (micro base station), as
shown in Figures 2(a) to 2(c).
Figure 2(a): Deployment mode of the 5G base station
Figure 2(b): Micro base station
Figure 2(c): Macro base station
The typical electrical power demand for Radio Base Stations (macro cell, micro cell and pico or femto cell), with
correlation to aggregated RF power, is available in Table 1, together with power needs of IoT, as they could be based on
powering paradigms similar to those of the Small Cells.
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13 Final draft ETSI ES 203 700 V1.1.7 (2025-07)
Table 1: Powering related characteristics of radio base station, Small Cells and IoT
EQUIPMENT
INSTALLATION POW. CONSUMPTION POWERING TYPE Backhauling connection Aggregated RF power
Local Remote mimimum Wireline /
INDOORS INDOORS OUTDOORS TYP MAX BATTERY mains power PoE BACKUP time Wireless Connection flavour MIN MAX
Public sites
Private and Duration
premises enterprises (W) (W) (years) (W) (W)
WIRELESS
COMPLEX MACRO BASE STATION (e.g.
YES
many
2/3/4/5G - multiple freq, massive MIMO X 8000 24000 X many Wireline Optical
hundreds
hours
and multiple operators)
Optical / mmWave
SIMPLE MACRO BASE STATION (e.g. YES Wireline few
X 3000 6000 X / high speed
2/3/4G - single freq and single operator) few hours / wireless hundreds
broadband
Optical / high speed
advised
MICROCELLS X 30 250 X X Wireline 120
minutes
broadband
advised
PICOCELLS (including FWA nodes) X 10 50 X X Wireline ETH/Optical 0,1 1
minutes
FEMTOCELLS X 5 20 X NO Wireline Any Broadband 0,01 0,1
WIRELINE
advised
VDSL2 DSLAMs Cabinets 150 250 X X Wireline Optical
minutes
G.FAST Cabinets 25 40 X Wireline Optical
IoT
Gas & water sensing, metering X very low 10 Wireless LP WAN
Surveillance camera X X 5 20 X X X NO Wireline Any Broadband
Environmental sensing (CO2, NOX, noise,
particulate …) X2 10 X NOWireless LP WAN
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14 Final draft ETSI ES 203 700 V1.1.7 (2025-07)
The most appropriate power architecture will depend on the site type, their coverage, location and distance from grid or
from remote power sources.
The power source selection will depend on:
• local grid availability or connection cost and lead time, compared to remote powering;
• services availability (continuity) requirements;
• need to share the power infrastructure between operators;
• availability of renewable energy e.g. photovoltaic;
• possible power connection shared with other user such as street Lighting equipment or electric car charging
stations, etc.
Power Interfaces for each case are described in clause 5.
A possible solution using streetlamp post for small cell deployment can be found in ETSI TS 110 174-2-2 [i.5].
4.3 Type of 5G network and impacts on power load, power
profile and feeding solution
Figures 2(a) to 2(c) give a base on possible 5G cellular network configurations, based on these figures it is possible to
identify 5G required power:
• Per site to define the site power supply and AC grid connection requirement.
• For the remote powering cluster site dedicated to many sites in an area. This will depend on line distances and
maximum aggregated power limit considering the AC grid connection available to this cluster site.
The network can have homogeneous patterns based on 1 to 3 macro cell BS per km², while it can be more
heterogeneous (HetNets) with 10 to 100 cells per km² ranging from macro to femto cells, a possible evolution is
reported in Figure 3:
• To establish the local power system and the number of power access either from AC grid or by DC remote
powering it is necessary to define power requirement and energy consumption of each site and capacity of
NE equipment. The cooling thermal limit and availability of local power can be a determinant parameter.
• To define remote power, the location and configuration are very important as they will need to reuse existing
pairs or existing ducts to install power cable (or hybrid powering/optical cable). In case this would turn out to
be impracticable, it can be considered building new buried or aerial lines although this is going to be more
expensive.
For all cases it is required to know the different type of 5G cells and NE power load profile and its evolution on each
site.
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15 Final draft ETSI ES 203 700 V1.1.7 (2025-07)
Figure 3: Evolution of 5G cellular network configurations to HetNets
Figure 4 reports an estimation of possible power request for a full radio site containing different bands for different
developments of 5G technologies.
Figure 4: Estimate radio base station power site rating
ETSI
16 Final draft ETSI ES 203 700 V1.1.7 (2025-07)
5 Powering solutions
5.0 General
The present clause defines requirements on 5G powering considering different site topologies.
The 5G NE power interface voltages commonly used are listed below:
• ETSI EN 300 132-2 [2] interface A for 40,5 V DC to 72 V DC powering. The equipment of the Remote radio
Unit (RRU/AAU) is designed to work with the most common powering architectures found in
telecommunications sites with operating voltages in the range -40,5 V DC to 72 V DC. Feeding DC voltages
within such range enables the use of common and lower cost equipment. The use of voltages below 60 V DC
incurs far less demanding safety requirements and eases installation and maintenance. However, within legacy
telecommunications cabling, the need to limit the power losses resulting from the relatively high currents
required restricts the maximum reach of this type of solution.
NOTE: ETSI EN 300 132-2 [2] defines as nominal voltage 48 V DC and voltage of 60 V DC.
• ETSI EN 300 132-1 [1] interface A1 for AC powering.
• Recommendation ITU-T L.1200 [i.13] or ETSI EN 300 132-3 [3] interface P for up to 400 V DC powering.
• Recommendation ITU-T L.1001 [i.12] for low DC voltage 5 V or 12 V e.g. used for little 5G femto or pico
cells.
• IEEE 802-3 [i.18] allows the same cable to provide both data connection and electric power to the devices.
Sometimes referred to as Power over Ethernet (PoE), Recommendation ITU-T L.1220 [i.14] specifies remote
power feeding over 2 and 4 balanced pairs of cables of Category 5 and above (as specified in
EN 50173-1 [i.8]). In addition, IEEE 802.3cg [i.9] specifies remote power feeding of a variety of 1 pair
balanced cables. Both implementations use voltages of below 60 V DC. The power feeding of
IEEE 802.3bt [i.19] provides up to 71 W at the remote equipment using 4 balance pairs at maximum distance
of 100 m while IEEE 802.3cg [i.9] delivers 14 W at 300 m and 2 W at 1 000 m.
The following clauses consider the power requirement for:
• Aggregation and Core equipment room.
• C-RAN and D-RAN site.
5.1 Convergence and Core Room Power Supply
5.1.1 Scenario 1: -48 V DC Power Supply Solution
Figure 5 reports a power feeding distribution in the case to use a -48 V DC power supply solution. The system shall
support -57 V DC power supply, as it is defined in ETSI EN 300 132-2 [2] that the upper limit value of a -48 V DC
system should be -57 V DC.
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17 Final draft ETSI ES 203 700 V1.1.7 (2025-07)
NOTE 1: AC2 can be a Diesel generator or any other type of emergency generator.
NOTE 2: Energy storage in some cases can be a fuel cell.
NOTE 3: In some cases WIND generator can be used to replace solar (PV) or in conjunction with them.
Figure 5: Network diagram of -48 V DC power supply solution
5.1.2 Scenario 2: up to 400 V DC Power Supply Solution
Figure 6 reports a power feeding distribution in the case of using an up to 400 V DC power supply solution. The up to
400 V DC system decreases voltage drop on cable and allows a much smaller cable size, which reduces cable
investment and makes it easier to be installed.
NOTE 1: AC2 can be a Diesel generator or any other type of emergency generator.
NOTE 2: Energy storage in some cases can be a fuel cell.
NOTE 3: In some cases WIND generator can be used to replace solar (PV) or in conjunction with them.
Figure 6: Networking diagram of the up to 400 V DC power supply solution
5.1.3 5G Power Supply Solution for aggregation and core equipment room
Considering the changes in the power supply requirements of the 5G network for the core room and future evolution,
the proposed power solution should have the following features:
1) Input and output voltage:
- Multiple energy input and multiple voltage output to meet ICT integration needs.
- Multi-input: multi-type of AC energy inputs and solar (optional WIND) energy input.
- Multi-output: 230 Vac, 400 V DC and other voltages output by adapting different power modules.
2) Lithium batteries:
- Lithium replacing lead-acid battery is expected to reduce more than 60 % footprint to meet the space
requirement of business expansion. Furthermore, the low dependency of lithium to the room temperature
allows installing it in ICT rooms.
- Lithium battery meets anti-fire requirement:
a) battery material: at current stage of technology lithium iron phosphate is required for safety
concern;
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18 Final draft ETSI ES 203 700 V1.1.7 (2025-07)
b) safety management: abnormality of external charging voltage and current does not affect battery
safety work;
c) flame-retardant: materials used in battery pack shall meet IEC 60695-11-20 [5];
d) fire control: when the cell has a fire problem, flame inside the battery pack shall not leak outside,
and the temperature of battery pack outer surface shall not exceed 120 °C.
- Lithium discharge capability in parallel: when the modules are connected in parallel, the maximum
discharge capacity can reach P×N without output power derating, P is the maximum discharge capacity
of a single battery, and N is the number of batteries in parallel.
3) Green and efficient:
- The system allows green energy (such as solar energy) access smoothly and gives it priority.
- The system can output -57 V DC, which saves cable loss by 10 % ~ 20 %.
4) Digital and intelligent management: the power system and the room environment information such as humidity
and temperature can be managed by a remote network management system.
5) Additional Safety requirements: safety functions such as safe start up, insulation monitor and AC utility
monitor are needed for enhancing the system safety.
Description:
• Safe start up: system automatically checks the cable route and remote load correctness in a safe voltage mode,
then outputs a voltage up to 400 V DC for remote load.
• Insulation monitor for 400 V DC: monitor system insulation impedance, including + to GND and - to GND.
Triggering alarm or cutting output when impedance is lower than defined threshold.
• AC utility monitor: detect AC voltage on the system. Triggering alarm or cutting output when impedance is
lower than defined threshold.
5.2 Impact of 5G in C-RAN&D-RAN Sites
5.2.1 Changes due to 5G implementation
The power consumption of 5G increases significantly compared with that of the 4G. In the 5G era, for example, the
estimated maximum power consumption 64T64R AAU could be 1 000 W to 1 400 W, and the estimated maximum
power consumption of the BBU could be about 1 200 W to 1 500 W including also actual 3G and 4G cards.
The maximum power consumption of a typical site will exceed 10 kW, while in a site where there are more than
10 bands, the power consumption will exceed 20 kW. In the multi-carrier sharing scenarios, this figure will be doubled.
5.2.2 Construction and Modernization Challenges Posed by 5G Network
Evolution
• Grid Reconstruction Challenges:
- Grid connection sizing of the existing sites may be insufficient due to power consumption increasing
when 5G accesses. Grid modernization is expensive and greatly slows down the pace of 5G deployment.
- Over 30 % of global sites needs grid modernization. The time to modernize the grid is about one year per
site.
• DC Power Distribution Challenges:
- A 5G single-band power distribution requires at least two 100 A inputs (or four 32 A and three 63 A
inputs). For example, over 75 % DC circuit breakers of a carrier in China are 63 A or smaller, which is
insufficient for 5G access.
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19 Final draft ETSI ES 203 700 V1.1.7 (2025-07)
- In a remote scenario with high-power AAU, huge voltage drop on cable would result in insufficient
voltage input for AAU, which means the AAU fails to work normally.
• Power Backup Challenges:
- The investment of battery expansion would double when 5G accesses. In addition, low energy density,
heavy weight and big volume of lead-acid battery further aggravate the difficulty to deploy 5G especially
on some rooftop sites with limited weight capacity and space availability.
• Cooling Challenges:
- The heat consumption increases in the same pace as the power consumption. Thus the heat dissipation
capability of some sites needs to expand, which takes long period and expensive investment.
• Equipment Ro
...
ETSI STANDARD
Environmental Engineering (EE);
Sustainable power feeding solutions for 5G network
2 ETSI ES 203 700 V1.2.1 (2025-09)
Reference
RES/EE-02110
Keywords
5G, cable, energy efficiency, hybrid, power,
remote, sustainability
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ETSI
3 ETSI ES 203 700 V1.2.1 (2025-09)
Contents
Intellectual Property Rights . 5
Foreword . 5
Modal verbs terminology . 5
Executive summary . 5
Introduction . 6
1 Scope . 7
2 References . 7
2.1 Normative references . 7
2.2 Informative references . 8
3 Definition of terms, symbols and abbreviations . 9
3.1 Terms . 9
3.2 Symbols . 9
3.3 Abbreviations . 9
4 5G networks . 10
4.1 5G Network general description . 10
4.2 Cells coverage and impacts on powering strategy . 12
4.3 Type of 5G network and impacts on power load, power profile and feeding solution . 14
5 Powering solutions . 16
5.0 General . 16
5.1 Convergence and Core Room Power Supply . 16
5.1.1 Scenario 1: -48 V DC Power Supply Solution . 16
5.1.2 Scenario 2: up to 400 V DC Power Supply Solution . 17
5.1.3 5G Power Supply Solution for aggregation and core equipment room . 17
5.2 Impact of 5G in C-RAN&D-RAN Sites . 18
5.2.1 Changes due to 5G implementation . 18
5.2.2 Construction and Modernization Challenges Posed by 5G Network Evolution . 18
5.2.3 Problems to Be Addressed by 5G Power Systems . 19
5.2.3.1 Low Cost Deployment . 19
5.2.3.2 Fast Construction . 19
5.2.3.3 Efficient and Energy Saving . 19
5.2.3.4 Smooth Evolution . 19
5.2.3.5 Simple O&M . 20
5.2.4 C-RAN & D-RAN Powering Scenario . 20
5.2.4.1 Networking diagram of powering scenario . 20
5.2.5 5G Power Solution for C-RAN&D-RAN site . 21
5.2.6 Intelligent Features for C-RAN&D-RAN site . 23
5.2.6.1 Intelligent Peak Shaving . 23
5.2.6.2 Advance Sleep/Hibernation Mode function . 24
5.3 Intelligent Management . 25
5.3.0 General . 25
5.3.1 Power availability Management . 25
5.3.2 SEE Management . 25
5.3.3 Remote Maintenance . 26
5.3.4 Intelligent Security . 26
5.3.5 Intelligent Energy Storage System . 26
5.4 Renewable energy solution for 5G base stations . 27
5.5 Hybrid architecture scenario, with integration of power and optical networks . 28
6 Energy Efficiency . 32
6.1 Power equipment energy efficiency . 32
6.2 NE static and dynamic power requirement management and impact on powering . 32
7 Dependability, reliability and maintenance . 32
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4 ETSI ES 203 700 V1.2.1 (2025-09)
8 Environmental impact . 33
Annex A (informative): Which power and where for 5G cells . 34
Annex B (informative): Method of optimization of equipment, power and energy . 35
Annex C (informative): Example of powering requirement definition on site and remote
powering area . 37
Annex D (informative): Example of required output voltage variation under correlation
models between different loads and different cable lengths . 38
Annex E (informative): Digital Reconfigurable Battery solution for 5G base stations. 40
Annex F (informative): Bibliography . 42
History . 43
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5 ETSI ES 203 700 V1.2.1 (2025-09)
Intellectual Property Rights
Essential patents
IPRs essential or potentially essential to normative deliverables may have been declared to ETSI. The declarations
pertaining to these essential IPRs, if any, are publicly available for ETSI members and non-members, and can be
found in ETSI SR 000 314: "Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs); Essential, or potentially Essential, IPRs notified to
ETSI in respect of ETSI standards", which is available from the ETSI Secretariat. Latest updates are available on the
ETSI IPR online database.
Pursuant to the ETSI Directives including the ETSI IPR Policy, no investigation regarding the essentiality of IPRs,
including IPR searches, has been carried out by ETSI. No guarantee can be given as to the existence of other IPRs not
referenced in ETSI SR 000 314 (or the updates on the ETSI Web server) which are, or may be, or may become,
essential to the present document.
Trademarks
The present document may include trademarks and/or tradenames which are asserted and/or registered by their owners.
ETSI claims no ownership of these except for any which are indicated as being the property of ETSI, and conveys no
right to use or reproduce any trademark and/or tradename. Mention of those trademarks in the present document does
not constitute an endorsement by ETSI of products, services or organizations associated with those trademarks.
DECT™, PLUGTESTS™, UMTS™ and the ETSI logo are trademarks of ETSI registered for the benefit of its
Members. 3GPP™, LTE™ and 5G™ logo are trademarks of ETSI registered for the benefit of its Members and of the
3GPP Organizational Partners. oneM2M™ logo is a trademark of ETSI registered for the benefit of its Members and of ®
the oneM2M Partners. GSM and the GSM logo are trademarks registered and owned by the GSM Association.
Foreword
This ETSI Standard (ES) has been produced by ETSI Technical Committee Environmental Engineering (EE).
Modal verbs terminology
In the present document "shall", "shall not", "should", "should not", "may", "need not", "will", "will not", "can" and
"cannot" are to be interpreted as described in clause 3.2 of the ETSI Drafting Rules (Verbal forms for the expression of
provisions).
"must" and "must not" are NOT allowed in ETSI deliverables except when used in direct citation.
Executive summary
The present document defines power feeding solutions for 5G, converged wireless and wireline access equipment and
network, taking into consideration their enhanced requirements on service availability and reliability, the new
deployment scenarios, together with the environmental impact of the proposed solutions.
The minimum requirements of different solutions including power feeding structures, components, backup, safety
requirements, environmental conditions are also defined.
The present document is applicable to powering of both mobile and fixed access network elements, in particular on
equipment that have similar configurations and needs.
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6 ETSI ES 203 700 V1.2.1 (2025-09)
Introduction
Mobile and fixed networks are evolving towards ultra-broadband, improved performance and coverage, with 5G and
beyond, are going to converge. The use of much broader frequency ranges, up to 60 GHz, where radio propagation is an
issue, is going to impact the network deployment topologies. In particular, the use of higher frequencies and the need to
cover hot/black spots and indoor locations, will make it necessary to deploy much denser amount of radio nodes.
5G is introducing major improvements on Massive MIMO, IoT, low latency, unlicensed spectrum, and with V2x for the
vehicular market. Support of some of these services will have a relevant effect on the power ratings and the energy
consumption at the radio base station.
A major new service area of 5G and beyond impacting the powering and backup will be the Ultra Reliable Low Latency
Communication (URLLC) as its support will increase the service availability demands by many orders of magnitude.
Supporting such high availability goals will be partly reached through redundant network coverage, but a main support
will have to come through newly designed powering architectures. This will be made even more challenging as 5G will
require the widespread introduction of distributed small cells. ETSI TS 110 174-2-2 [i.5] analyses the implications and
indicates possible solutions to fulfil such high demanding availability goals.
There is a need to define sustainable and smart powering solutions, able to adapt to the present mobile network
technologies and able to evolve to adapt to their evolution. The flexibility would be needed at level of power interface,
power consumption, architecture tolerant to power delivery point changes and including control-monitoring.
This means that it should include from the beginning appropriate modularity and reconfiguration features for local
powering and energy storage and for remote powering solutions including power lines sizing, input and output
conversion power and scalable sources.
The present document was developed jointly by ETSI TC EE and ITU-T Study Group 5. It is published respectively by
ITU and ETSI as Recommendation ITU-T L.1210 [i.7] and ETSI ES 203 700 (the present document), which are
technically equivalent.
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7 ETSI ES 203 700 V1.2.1 (2025-09)
1 Scope
The present document defines power feeding solutions for 5G, converged wireless and wireline access equipment and
network, taking into consideration their enhanced requirements on service availability and reliability, the new
deployment scenarios, together with the environmental impact of the proposed solutions.
The minimum requirements of different solutions including power feeding structures, components, backup, safety
requirements, environmental conditions are also defined.
The present document is applicable to powering of both mobile and fixed access network elements, in particular on
equipment that have similar configurations and needs.
The development of 5G networks will create a new scenario in which the density of radio cells will increase
considerably, together with the increase of wireline network equipment that are going to be installed in the vicinity to
the users, thereby creating the need to define new solutions for powering that will be environmentally friendly,
sustainable, dependable, smart and visible remotely.
The -48 V DC, up to 400 V DC local and remote power solutions defined respectively in ETSI EN 300 132-2 [2],
ETSI EN 302 099 [i.10] and ETSI EN 300 132-3 [3] or Recommendation ITU-T L.1200 [i.13] will be considered as the
standards in force for power facilities, together with IEEE 802.3 [i.18] (PoE).
2 References
2.1 Normative references
References are either specific (identified by date of publication and/or edition number or version number) or
non-specific. For specific references, only the cited version applies. For non-specific references, the latest version of the
referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
Referenced documents which are not found to be publicly available in the expected location might be found in the
ETSI docbox.
NOTE: While any hyperlinks included in this clause were valid at the time of publication, ETSI cannot guarantee
their long-term validity.
The following referenced documents are necessary for the application of the present document.
[1] ETSI EN 300 132-1 (V2.1.1) (03-2019): "Environmental Engineering (EE); Power supply
interface at the input to Information and Communication Technology (ICT) equipment; Part 1:
Alternating Current (AC)".
[2] ETSI EN 300 132-2 (V2.6.1) (04-2019):"Environmental Engineering (EE); Power supply interface
at the input of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) equipment; Part 2: -48 V
Direct Current (DC)".
[3] ETSI EN 300 132-3 (V2.3.1) (01-2023): "Environmental Engineering (EE); Power supply
interface at the input of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) equipment; Part 3: Up
to 400 V Direct Current (DC)".
[4] ETSI ES 203 199 (V1.3.1) (02-2015): "Environmental Engineering (EE); Methodology for
environmental Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Information and Communication Technology
(ICT) goods, networks and services".
[5] IEC 60695-11-20: "Fire hazard testing - Part 11-20: Test flames - 500 W flame test method".
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8 ETSI ES 203 700 V1.2.1 (2025-09)
2.2 Informative references
References are either specific (identified by date of publication and/or edition number or version number) or
non-specific. For specific references, only the cited version applies. For non-specific references, the latest version of the
referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
NOTE: While any hyperlinks included in this clause were valid at the time of publication, ETSI cannot guarantee
their long-term validity.
The following referenced documents may be useful in implementing an ETSI deliverable or add to the reader's
understanding, but are not required for conformance to the present document.
[i.1] Recommendation ITU-T Q.1743 (09/2016): "IMT-Advanced references to Release 11 of
LTE-Advanced evolved packet core network".
[i.2] ETSI ES 202 336-12: "Environmental Engineering (EE); Monitoring and control interface for
infrastructure equipment (power, cooling and building environment systems used in
telecommunication networks); Part 12: ICT equipment power, energy and environmental
parameters monitoring information model".
[i.3] ETSI EN 301 605 (V1.1.1) (10-2013): "Environmental Engineering (EE); Earthing and bonding of
400 V DC data and telecom (ICT) equipment".
[i.4] ETSI TS 122 261: "5G; Service requirements for next generation new services and markets (3GPP
TS 22.261)".
[i.5] ETSI TS 110 174-2-2: "Access, Terminals, Transmission and Multiplexing (ATTM); Sustainable
Digital Multiservice Cities; Broadband Deployment and Energy Management; Part 2: Multiservice
Networking Infrastructure and Associated Street Furniture; Sub-part 2: The use of lamp-posts for
hosting sensing devices and 5G networking".
[i.6] Recommendation ITU-T K.64 (06/2016): "Safe working practices for outside equipment installed
in particular environments".
[i.7] Void.
[i.8] EN 50173-1: "Information technology - Generic cabling systems - Part 1: General requirement",
(produced by CEN).
[i.9] IEEE 802.3cg™: "IEEE Approved Draft Standard for Ethernet Amendment 5: Physical Layer
Specifications and Management Parameters for 10 Mb/s Operation and Associated Power Delivery
over a Single Balanced Pair of Conductors".
[i.10] ETSI EN 302 099: "Environmental Engineering (EE); Powering of equipment in access network".
[i.11] ETSI TS 103 553-1: "Environmental Engineering (EE); Innovative energy storage technology for
stationary use; Part 1: Overview".
[i.12] Recommendation ITU-T L.1001 (11/2012): "External universal power adapter solutions for
stationary information and communication technology devices".
[i.13] Recommendation ITU-T L.1200 (05/2012): "Direct current power feeding interface up to 400 V at
the input to telecommunication and ICT equipment".
[i.14] ETSI TS 103 553-1 (V1.1.1) (08-2019): "Environmental Engineering (EE); Innovative energy
storage technology for stationary use; Part 1: Overview".
[i.15] ETSI TS 103 553-2 (V1.1.1) (11-2021): "Environmental Engineering (EE); Innovative energy
storage technology for stationary use;Part 2: Battery".
[i.16] ETSI TS 103 553-3 (V1.1.1) (01-2020): "Environmental Engineering (EE); Innovative energy
storage technology for stationary use; Part 3: Supercapacitor".
[i.17] Recommendation ITU-T L.1350 (10/2016): "Energy efficiency metrics of a base station site".
[i.18] IEEE 802.3™-2018: "IEEE Standard for Ethernet".
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9 ETSI ES 203 700 V1.2.1 (2025-09)
[i.19] IEEE 802.3bt™-2018: "IEEE Standard for Ethernet Amendment 2: Physical Layer and
Management Parameters for Power over Ethernet over 4 pairs".
[i.20] A. Gupta, R. K. Jha: "A Survey of 5G Network: Architecture and Emerging Technologies".
[i.21] CableFree: "5G Frequency bands: Spectrum Allocations for Next-Gen LTE".
3 Definition of terms, symbols and abbreviations
3.1 Terms
For the purposes of the present document, the following terms apply:
cell: radio network object that can be uniquely identified by a user equipment from a (cell) identification that is
broadcasted over a geographical area from one UTRAN or GERAN access point
NOTE 1: A Cell in UTRAN is either FDD or TDD mode.
NOTE 2: As defined in Recommendation ITU-T Q.1743 [i.1].
cloud RAN: RAN functions are partially or completely centralized with two additional key features: pooling of
baseband/hardware resources, and virtualization through general-purpose processors
distributed RAN: network development where RAN processing is fully performed at the site as in 4G
macro cells: outdoor cells with a large cell radius
NOTE: As defined in Recommendation ITU-T Q.1743 [i.1].
micro cells: small cells
NOTE: As defined in Recommendation ITU-T Q.1743 [i.1].
pico cells: cells, mainly indoor cells, with a radius typically less than 50 m
NOTE: As defined in Recommendation ITU-T Q.1743 [i.1]
3.2 Symbols
For the purposes of the present document, the following symbols apply:
C Celsius
kW Kilo Watt
L Litre
l Length
m Milli
R Resistance
W Watt
Ω Ohm
σ Resistivity
3.3 Abbreviations
For the purposes of the present document, the following abbreviations apply:
5G Fifth Generation
AAU Active Antenna Unit
AC Alternating Current
Ah Ampere hours
AI Artificial Intelligence
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10 ETSI ES 203 700 V1.2.1 (2025-09)
BBU Base Band Unit
BCS Battery Control System
BMS Battery Management System
BS Base Station
C-RAN Centralized or Cloud RAN
DC Direct Current
NOTE: Also when used as a suffix to units of measurement.
DG Diesel Generator
DOD Deep Of Discharge
DP Distribution Point
D-RAN Distributed RAN
DSLAM Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplier
EV Electrical Vehicle
FWA Fixed Wireless Access
GND GrouND
GPON Gigabit Passive Optical Network
Hetnets Heterogeneous network
ICT Information Communication Telecommunication
IoT Internet of Things
LFP Lithium Iron Phosphate
MEC Multi-access Edge Computing
MIMO Multi-Input Multi-Output
mmWaves millimetric Waves
MPPT Maximum Power Point Tracking
NE Network Element
OS Optical Splitter
PAV Power Availability Value
PN Power Node
PON Passive Optical Network
PS Power Splitter
PSU Power Supply Unit
PTU Power Transmitter Unit
PV PhotoVoltaic
PVC PolyVinyl Chloride
RAN Radio Access Network
REN Renewable ENergy
RF Radio Frequency
RRH Remote Radio Head
RRU Remote Radio Unit
SEE Site Energy Efficiency
SELV Safety Extra Low Voltage
SOC Status Of Charge
SOH Status Of Health
TDD Time Division Duplex
TTM Time To Market
U Unit
URLLC Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication
UTRAN Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network
UV UltraViolet
4 5G networks
4.1 5G Network general description
Figure 1 is presenting a general end-to-end schematics of 5G network to be powered.
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11 ETSI ES 203 700 V1.2.1 (2025-09)
It includes stationary and mobile equipment:
• Macro cell equipment BS for wide coverage. In most cases, they will be located in the same sites as the macro
BS of the previous mobile generations. The increased energy demand and the much higher availability need of
the 5G equipment will pose tough challenges to the powering infrastructure and will likely require its major
upgrade both on the power capabilities and the backup duration.
• Small cell, to cover small geographical area in indoor/outdoor applications, typically to satisfy data traffic
hot-spots, black-spots and to deliver services at very high frequencies (e.g. mmWaves) that could not be
supported just through macro BS installations. Small cells can be subdivided into:
- Micro cell - normally installed outdoors. Designed to support large number of users in high data traffic
areas, to solve coverage issues and to support very high frequency deployment. Capable to cover
medium/large cells size and suitable for application like smart cities, smart metro, etc.
- Pico cell - normally installed indoors. Suitable for enterprises, shopping centres, stadiums applications,
for extended network coverage and data throughput.
- Femto cell - basically small mobile base stations designed to provide extended coverage for residential
and SoHo applications. Poor signal strength from mobile operator's base stations can be solved using
Femtocell implementation. Femtocells are primarily introduced to offload network congestion, extend
coverage and increase data capacity to indoor users.
• IoT devices and concentrators.
• In network cloud distribution including edge computing.
Also Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) radio access solutions, typically in point-to-multipoint configuration with coverage
across macro and small cells schemes, will contribute to the evolution of ultra-broadband future networks.
Source: "A Survey of 5G Network: Architecture and Emerging Technologies" [i.20].
Figure 1: General principle of a 5G cellular network architecture with interconnectivity among
the different emerging technologies like Massive MIMO network, Cognitive Radio
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12 ETSI ES 203 700 V1.2.1 (2025-09)
4.2 Cells coverage and impacts on powering strategy
In the 4G era, a base station covers a radius of hundreds of metres, while a 5G base station operating at mmWave may
cover only 20 m to 40 m, needing a much higher number of equipment to be spread-out in the field to guarantee
appropriate coverage. More dense deployment will also be needed to cover high traffic areas (e.g. stadiums) and indoor
locations. That could result in much higher network development complexity and costs. In addition, the deployment of
additional base stations is difficult and the site resources are not easy to obtain. Therefore, 5G networks will see a major
development of small cells, in the form of small base stations as the basic unit for ultra-intensive networking, that is,
small base stations dense deployment. In the future, the most likely deployment mode for 5G base station construction
will be low-frequency wide area coverage (macro base station) + high-frequency deep coverage (micro base station), as
shown in Figures 2(a) to 2(c).
Figure 2(a): Deployment mode of the 5G base station
Figure 2(b): Micro base station
Figure 2(c): Macro base station
The typical electrical power demand for Radio Base Stations (macro cell, micro cell and pico or femto cell), with
correlation to aggregated RF power, is available in Table 1, together with power needs of IoT, as they could be based on
powering paradigms similar to those of the Small Cells.
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13 ETSI ES 203 700 V1.2.1 (2025-09)
Table 1: Powering related characteristics of radio base station, Small Cells and IoT
EQUIPMENT
INSTALLATION POW. CONSUMPTION POWERING TYPE Backhauling connection Aggregated RF power
Local Remote mimimum Wireline /
INDOORS INDOORS OUTDOORS TYP MAX BATTERY mains power PoE BACKUP time Wireless Connection flavour MIN MAX
Public sites
Private and Duration
premises enterprises (W) (W) (years) (W) (W)
WIRELESS
COMPLEX MACRO BASE STATION (e.g.
YES
many
2/3/4/5G - multiple freq, massive MIMO X 8000 24000 X many Wireline Optical
hundreds
hours
and multiple operators)
Optical / mmWave
SIMPLE MACRO BASE STATION (e.g. YES Wireline few
X 3000 6000 X / high speed
2/3/4G - single freq and single operator) few hours / wireless hundreds
broadband
Optical / high speed
advised
MICROCELLS X 30 250 X X Wireline 120
minutes
broadband
advised
PICOCELLS (including FWA nodes) X 10 50 X X Wireline ETH/Optical 0,1 1
minutes
FEMTOCELLS X 5 20 X NO Wireline Any Broadband 0,01 0,1
WIRELINE
advised
VDSL2 DSLAMs Cabinets 150 250 X X Wireline Optical
minutes
G.FAST Cabinets 25 40 X Wireline Optical
IoT
Gas & water sensing, metering X very low 10 Wireless LP WAN
Surveillance camera X X 5 20 X X X NO Wireline Any Broadband
Environmental sensing (CO2, NOX, noise,
particulate …) X2 10 X NOWireless LP WAN
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14 ETSI ES 203 700 V1.2.1 (2025-09)
The most appropriate power architecture will depend on the site type, their coverage, location and distance from grid or
from remote power sources.
The power source selection will depend on:
• local grid availability or connection cost and lead time, compared to remote powering;
• services availability (continuity) requirements;
• need to share the power infrastructure between operators;
• availability of renewable energy e.g. photovoltaic;
• possible power connection shared with other user such as street Lighting equipment or electric car charging
stations, etc.
Power Interfaces for each case are described in clause 5.
A possible solution using streetlamp post for small cell deployment can be found in ETSI TS 110 174-2-2 [i.5].
4.3 Type of 5G network and impacts on power load, power
profile and feeding solution
Figures 2(a) to 2(c) give a base on possible 5G cellular network configurations, based on these figures it is possible to
identify 5G required power:
• Per site to define the site power supply and AC grid connection requirement.
• For the remote powering cluster site dedicated to many sites in an area. This will depend on line distances and
maximum aggregated power limit considering the AC grid connection available to this cluster site.
The network can have homogeneous patterns based on 1 to 3 macro cell BS per km², while it can be more
heterogeneous (HetNets) with 10 to 100 cells per km² ranging from macro to femto cells, a possible evolution is
reported in Figure 3:
• To establish the local power system and the number of power access either from AC grid or by DC remote
powering it is necessary to define power requirement and energy consumption of each site and capacity of
NE equipment. The cooling thermal limit and availability of local power can be a determinant parameter.
• To define remote power, the location and configuration are very important as they will need to reuse existing
pairs or existing ducts to install power cable (or hybrid powering/optical cable). In case this would turn out to
be impracticable, it can be considered building new buried or aerial lines although this is going to be more
expensive.
For all cases it is required to know the different type of 5G cells and NE power load profile and its evolution on each
site.
ETSI
15 ETSI ES 203 700 V1.2.1 (2025-09)
Figure 3: Evolution of 5G cellular network configurations to HetNets
Figure 4 reports an estimation of possible power request for a full radio site containing different bands for different
developments of 5G technologies.
Figure 4: Estimate radio base station power site rating
ETSI
16 ETSI ES 203 700 V1.2.1 (2025-09)
5 Powering solutions
5.0 General
The present clause defines requirements on 5G powering considering different site topologies.
The 5G NE power interface voltages commonly used are listed below:
• ETSI EN 300 132-2 [2] interface A for 40,5 V DC to 72 V DC powering. The equipment of the Remote Radio
Unit (RRU/AAU) is designed to work with the most common powering architectures found in
telecommunications sites with operating voltages in the range -40,5 V DC to 72 V DC. Feeding DC voltages
within such range enables the use of common and lower cost equipment. The use of voltages below 60 V DC
incurs far less demanding safety requirements and eases installation and maintenance. However, within legacy
telecommunications cabling, the need to limit the power losses resulting from the relatively high currents
required restricts the maximum reach of this type of solution.
NOTE: ETSI EN 300 132-2 [2] defines as nominal voltage 48 V DC and voltage of 60 V DC.
• ETSI EN 300 132-1 [1] interface A1 for AC powering.
• Recommendation ITU-T L.1200 [i.13] or ETSI EN 300 132-3 [3] interface P for up to 400 V DC powering.
• Recommendation ITU-T L.1001 [i.12] for low DC voltage 5 V or 12 V e.g. used for little 5G femto or pico
cells.
• IEEE 802-3 [i.18] allows the same cable to provide both data connection and electric power to the devices.
Sometimes referred to as Power over Ethernet (PoE), Recommendation ITU-T L.1220 [i.14] specifies remote
power feeding over 2 and 4 balanced pairs of cables of Category 5 and above (as specified in
EN 50173-1 [i.8]). In addition, IEEE 802.3cg [i.9] specifies remote power feeding of a variety of 1 pair
balanced cables. Both implementations use voltages of below 60 V DC. The power feeding of
IEEE 802.3bt [i.19] provides up to 71 W at the remote equipment using 4 balance pairs at maximum distance
of 100 m while IEEE 802.3cg [i.9] delivers 14 W at 300 m and 2 W at 1 000 m.
The following clauses consider the power requirement for:
• Aggregation and Core equipment room.
• C-RAN and D-RAN site.
5.1 Convergence and Core Room Power Supply
5.1.1 Scenario 1: -48 V DC Power Supply Solution
Figure 5 reports a power feeding distribution in the case to use a -48 V DC power supply solution. The system shall
support -57 V DC power supply, as it is defined in ETSI EN 300 132-2 [2] that the upper limit value of a -48 V DC
system should be -57 V DC.
ETSI
17 ETSI ES 203 700 V1.2.1 (2025-09)
NOTE 1: AC2 can be a Diesel generator or any other type of emergency generator.
NOTE 2: Energy storage in some cases can be a fuel cell.
NOTE 3: In some cases WIND generator can be used to replace solar (PV) or in conjunction with them.
Figure 5: Network diagram of -48 V DC power supply solution
5.1.2 Scenario 2: up to 400 V DC Power Supply Solution
Figure 6 reports a power feeding distribution in the case of using an up to 400 V DC power supply solution. The up to
400 V DC system decreases voltage drop on cable and allows a much smaller cable size, which reduces cable
investment and makes it easier to be installed.
NOTE 1: AC2 can be a Diesel generator or any other type of emergency generator.
NOTE 2: Energy storage in some cases can be a fuel cell.
NOTE 3: In some cases WIND generator can be used to replace solar (PV) or in conjunction with them.
Figure 6: Networking diagram of the up to 400 V DC power supply solution
5.1.3 5G Power Supply Solution for aggregation and core equipment room
Considering the changes in the power supply requirements of the 5G network for the core room and future evolution,
the proposed power solution should have the following features:
1) Input and output voltage:
- Multiple energy input and multiple voltage output to meet ICT integration needs.
- Multi-input: multi-type of AC energy inputs and solar (optional WIND) energy input.
- Multi-output: 230 Vac, 400 V DC and other voltages output by adapting different power modules.
2) Lithium batteries:
- Lithium replacing lead-acid battery is expected to reduce more than 60 % footprint to meet the space
requirement of business expansion. Furthermore, the low dependency of lithium to the room temperature
allows installing it in ICT rooms.
- Lithium battery meets anti-fire requirement:
a) battery material: at current stage of technology lithium iron phosphate is required for safety
concern;
ETSI
18 ETSI ES 203 700 V1.2.1 (2025-09)
b) safety management: abnormality of external charging voltage and current does not affect battery
safety work;
c) flame-retardant: materials used in battery pack shall meet IEC 60695-11-20 [5];
d) fire control: when the cell has a fire problem, flame inside the battery pack shall not leak outside,
and the temperature of battery pack outer surface shall not exceed 120 °C.
- Lithium discharge capability in parallel: when the modules are connected in parallel, the maximum
discharge capacity can reach P×N without output power derating, P is the maximum discharge capacity
of a single battery, and N is the number of batteries in parallel.
3) Green and efficient:
- The system allows green energy (such as solar energy) access smoothly and gives it priority.
- The system can output -57 V DC, which saves cable loss by 10 % ~ 20 %.
4) Digital and intelligent management: the power system and the room environment information such as humidity
and temperature can be managed by a remote network management system.
5) Additional Safety requirements: safety functions such as safe start up, insulation monitor and AC utility
monitor are needed for enhancing the system safety.
Description:
• Safe start up: system automatically checks the cable route and remote load correctness in a safe voltage mode,
then outputs a voltage up to 400 V DC for remote load.
• Insulation monitor for 400 V DC: monitor system insulation impedance, including + to GND and - to GND.
Triggering alarm or cutting output when impedance is lower than defined threshold.
• AC utility monitor: detect AC voltage on the system. Triggering alarm or cutting output when impedance is
lower than defined threshold.
5.2 Impact of 5G in C-RAN&D-RAN Sites
5.2.1 Changes due to 5G implementation
The power consumption of 5G increases significantly compared with that of the 4G. In the 5G era, for example, the
estimated maximum power consumption 64T64R AAU could be 1 000 W to 1 400 W, and the estimated maximum
power consumption of the BBU could be about 1 200 W to 1 500 W including also actual 3G and 4G cards.
The maximum power consumption of a typical site will exceed 10 kW, while in a site where there are more than
10 bands, the power consumption will exceed 20 kW. In the multi-carrier sharing scenarios, this figure will be doubled.
5.2.2 Construction and Modernization Challenges Posed by 5G Network
Evolution
• Grid Reconstruction Challenges:
- Grid connection sizing of the existing sites may be insufficient due to power consumption increasing
when 5G accesses. Grid modernization is expensive and greatly slows down the pace of 5G deployment.
- Over 30 % of global sites needs grid modernization. The time to modernize the grid is about one year per
site.
• DC Power Distribution Challenges:
- A 5G single-band power distribution requires at least two 100 A inputs (or four 32 A and three 63 A
inputs). For example, over 75 % DC circuit breakers of a carrier in China are 63 A or smaller, which is
insufficient for 5G access.
ETSI
19 ETSI ES 203 700 V1.2.1 (2025-09)
- In a remote scenario with high-power AAU, huge voltage drop on cable would result in insufficient
voltage input for AAU, which means the AAU fails to work normally.
• Power Backup Challenges:
- The investment of battery expansion would double when 5G accesses. In addition, low energy density,
heavy weight and big volume of lead-acid battery further aggravate the difficulty to deploy 5G especially
on some rooftop sites with limited weight capacity and space availability.
• Cooling Challenges:
- The heat consumption increases in the same pace as the power consumption. Thus the heat dissipation
capability of some sites needs to expand, which takes long period and expensive investment.
• Equipment Room and Cabinet Space Challenges:
- The remaining space in some existing cabinets is insufficient, thus a new cabinet is required for
accommodating 5G devices. However, some sites have no extra space for adding new cabinets.
• O&M Challenges:
- Higher Electricity Cost:
The current electr
...
SLOVENSKI STANDARD
Okoljski inženiring (EE) - Sonaravne rešitve napajanja za omrežje 5G
Environmental Engineering (EE) - Sustainable power feeding solutions for 5G network
Ta slovenski standard je istoveten z: ETSI ES 203 700 V1.2.1 (2025-09)
ICS:
19.040 Preskušanje v zvezi z Environmental testing
okoljem
35.110 Omreževanje Networking
2003-01.Slovenski inštitut za standardizacijo. Razmnoževanje celote ali delov tega standarda ni dovoljeno.
ETSI STANDARD
Environmental Engineering (EE);
Sustainable power feeding solutions for 5G network
2 ETSI ES 203 700 V1.2.1 (2025-09)
Reference
RES/EE-02110
Keywords
5G, cable, energy efficiency, hybrid, power,
remote, sustainability
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ETSI
3 ETSI ES 203 700 V1.2.1 (2025-09)
Contents
Intellectual Property Rights . 5
Foreword . 5
Modal verbs terminology . 5
Executive summary . 5
Introduction . 6
1 Scope . 7
2 References . 7
2.1 Normative references . 7
2.2 Informative references . 8
3 Definition of terms, symbols and abbreviations . 9
3.1 Terms . 9
3.2 Symbols . 9
3.3 Abbreviations . 9
4 5G networks . 10
4.1 5G Network general description . 10
4.2 Cells coverage and impacts on powering strategy . 12
4.3 Type of 5G network and impacts on power load, power profile and feeding solution . 14
5 Powering solutions . 16
5.0 General . 16
5.1 Convergence and Core Room Power Supply . 16
5.1.1 Scenario 1: -48 V DC Power Supply Solution . 16
5.1.2 Scenario 2: up to 400 V DC Power Supply Solution . 17
5.1.3 5G Power Supply Solution for aggregation and core equipment room . 17
5.2 Impact of 5G in C-RAN&D-RAN Sites . 18
5.2.1 Changes due to 5G implementation . 18
5.2.2 Construction and Modernization Challenges Posed by 5G Network Evolution . 18
5.2.3 Problems to Be Addressed by 5G Power Systems . 19
5.2.3.1 Low Cost Deployment . 19
5.2.3.2 Fast Construction . 19
5.2.3.3 Efficient and Energy Saving . 19
5.2.3.4 Smooth Evolution . 19
5.2.3.5 Simple O&M . 20
5.2.4 C-RAN & D-RAN Powering Scenario . 20
5.2.4.1 Networking diagram of powering scenario . 20
5.2.5 5G Power Solution for C-RAN&D-RAN site . 21
5.2.6 Intelligent Features for C-RAN&D-RAN site . 23
5.2.6.1 Intelligent Peak Shaving . 23
5.2.6.2 Advance Sleep/Hibernation Mode function . 24
5.3 Intelligent Management . 25
5.3.0 General . 25
5.3.1 Power availability Management . 25
5.3.2 SEE Management . 25
5.3.3 Remote Maintenance . 26
5.3.4 Intelligent Security . 26
5.3.5 Intelligent Energy Storage System . 26
5.4 Renewable energy solution for 5G base stations . 27
5.5 Hybrid architecture scenario, with integration of power and optical networks . 28
6 Energy Efficiency . 32
6.1 Power equipment energy efficiency . 32
6.2 NE static and dynamic power requirement management and impact on powering . 32
7 Dependability, reliability and maintenance . 32
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4 ETSI ES 203 700 V1.2.1 (2025-09)
8 Environmental impact . 33
Annex A (informative): Which power and where for 5G cells . 34
Annex B (informative): Method of optimization of equipment, power and energy . 35
Annex C (informative): Example of powering requirement definition on site and remote
powering area . 37
Annex D (informative): Example of required output voltage variation under correlation
models between different loads and different cable lengths . 38
Annex E (informative): Digital Reconfigurable Battery solution for 5G base stations. 40
Annex F (informative): Bibliography . 42
History . 43
ETSI
5 ETSI ES 203 700 V1.2.1 (2025-09)
Intellectual Property Rights
Essential patents
IPRs essential or potentially essential to normative deliverables may have been declared to ETSI. The declarations
pertaining to these essential IPRs, if any, are publicly available for ETSI members and non-members, and can be
found in ETSI SR 000 314: "Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs); Essential, or potentially Essential, IPRs notified to
ETSI in respect of ETSI standards", which is available from the ETSI Secretariat. Latest updates are available on the
ETSI IPR online database.
Pursuant to the ETSI Directives including the ETSI IPR Policy, no investigation regarding the essentiality of IPRs,
including IPR searches, has been carried out by ETSI. No guarantee can be given as to the existence of other IPRs not
referenced in ETSI SR 000 314 (or the updates on the ETSI Web server) which are, or may be, or may become,
essential to the present document.
Trademarks
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ETSI claims no ownership of these except for any which are indicated as being the property of ETSI, and conveys no
right to use or reproduce any trademark and/or tradename. Mention of those trademarks in the present document does
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the oneM2M Partners. GSM and the GSM logo are trademarks registered and owned by the GSM Association.
Foreword
This ETSI Standard (ES) has been produced by ETSI Technical Committee Environmental Engineering (EE).
Modal verbs terminology
In the present document "shall", "shall not", "should", "should not", "may", "need not", "will", "will not", "can" and
"cannot" are to be interpreted as described in clause 3.2 of the ETSI Drafting Rules (Verbal forms for the expression of
provisions).
"must" and "must not" are NOT allowed in ETSI deliverables except when used in direct citation.
Executive summary
The present document defines power feeding solutions for 5G, converged wireless and wireline access equipment and
network, taking into consideration their enhanced requirements on service availability and reliability, the new
deployment scenarios, together with the environmental impact of the proposed solutions.
The minimum requirements of different solutions including power feeding structures, components, backup, safety
requirements, environmental conditions are also defined.
The present document is applicable to powering of both mobile and fixed access network elements, in particular on
equipment that have similar configurations and needs.
ETSI
6 ETSI ES 203 700 V1.2.1 (2025-09)
Introduction
Mobile and fixed networks are evolving towards ultra-broadband, improved performance and coverage, with 5G and
beyond, are going to converge. The use of much broader frequency ranges, up to 60 GHz, where radio propagation is an
issue, is going to impact the network deployment topologies. In particular, the use of higher frequencies and the need to
cover hot/black spots and indoor locations, will make it necessary to deploy much denser amount of radio nodes.
5G is introducing major improvements on Massive MIMO, IoT, low latency, unlicensed spectrum, and with V2x for the
vehicular market. Support of some of these services will have a relevant effect on the power ratings and the energy
consumption at the radio base station.
A major new service area of 5G and beyond impacting the powering and backup will be the Ultra Reliable Low Latency
Communication (URLLC) as its support will increase the service availability demands by many orders of magnitude.
Supporting such high availability goals will be partly reached through redundant network coverage, but a main support
will have to come through newly designed powering architectures. This will be made even more challenging as 5G will
require the widespread introduction of distributed small cells. ETSI TS 110 174-2-2 [i.5] analyses the implications and
indicates possible solutions to fulfil such high demanding availability goals.
There is a need to define sustainable and smart powering solutions, able to adapt to the present mobile network
technologies and able to evolve to adapt to their evolution. The flexibility would be needed at level of power interface,
power consumption, architecture tolerant to power delivery point changes and including control-monitoring.
This means that it should include from the beginning appropriate modularity and reconfiguration features for local
powering and energy storage and for remote powering solutions including power lines sizing, input and output
conversion power and scalable sources.
The present document was developed jointly by ETSI TC EE and ITU-T Study Group 5. It is published respectively by
ITU and ETSI as Recommendation ITU-T L.1210 [i.7] and ETSI ES 203 700 (the present document), which are
technically equivalent.
ETSI
7 ETSI ES 203 700 V1.2.1 (2025-09)
1 Scope
The present document defines power feeding solutions for 5G, converged wireless and wireline access equipment and
network, taking into consideration their enhanced requirements on service availability and reliability, the new
deployment scenarios, together with the environmental impact of the proposed solutions.
The minimum requirements of different solutions including power feeding structures, components, backup, safety
requirements, environmental conditions are also defined.
The present document is applicable to powering of both mobile and fixed access network elements, in particular on
equipment that have similar configurations and needs.
The development of 5G networks will create a new scenario in which the density of radio cells will increase
considerably, together with the increase of wireline network equipment that are going to be installed in the vicinity to
the users, thereby creating the need to define new solutions for powering that will be environmentally friendly,
sustainable, dependable, smart and visible remotely.
The -48 V DC, up to 400 V DC local and remote power solutions defined respectively in ETSI EN 300 132-2 [2],
ETSI EN 302 099 [i.10] and ETSI EN 300 132-3 [3] or Recommendation ITU-T L.1200 [i.13] will be considered as the
standards in force for power facilities, together with IEEE 802.3 [i.18] (PoE).
2 References
2.1 Normative references
References are either specific (identified by date of publication and/or edition number or version number) or
non-specific. For specific references, only the cited version applies. For non-specific references, the latest version of the
referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
Referenced documents which are not found to be publicly available in the expected location might be found in the
ETSI docbox.
NOTE: While any hyperlinks included in this clause were valid at the time of publication, ETSI cannot guarantee
their long-term validity.
The following referenced documents are necessary for the application of the present document.
[1] ETSI EN 300 132-1 (V2.1.1) (03-2019): "Environmental Engineering (EE); Power supply
interface at the input to Information and Communication Technology (ICT) equipment; Part 1:
Alternating Current (AC)".
[2] ETSI EN 300 132-2 (V2.6.1) (04-2019):"Environmental Engineering (EE); Power supply interface
at the input of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) equipment; Part 2: -48 V
Direct Current (DC)".
[3] ETSI EN 300 132-3 (V2.3.1) (01-2023): "Environmental Engineering (EE); Power supply
interface at the input of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) equipment; Part 3: Up
to 400 V Direct Current (DC)".
[4] ETSI ES 203 199 (V1.3.1) (02-2015): "Environmental Engineering (EE); Methodology for
environmental Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Information and Communication Technology
(ICT) goods, networks and services".
[5] IEC 60695-11-20: "Fire hazard testing - Part 11-20: Test flames - 500 W flame test method".
ETSI
8 ETSI ES 203 700 V1.2.1 (2025-09)
2.2 Informative references
References are either specific (identified by date of publication and/or edition number or version number) or
non-specific. For specific references, only the cited version applies. For non-specific references, the latest version of the
referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
NOTE: While any hyperlinks included in this clause were valid at the time of publication, ETSI cannot guarantee
their long-term validity.
The following referenced documents may be useful in implementing an ETSI deliverable or add to the reader's
understanding, but are not required for conformance to the present document.
[i.1] Recommendation ITU-T Q.1743 (09/2016): "IMT-Advanced references to Release 11 of
LTE-Advanced evolved packet core network".
[i.2] ETSI ES 202 336-12: "Environmental Engineering (EE); Monitoring and control interface for
infrastructure equipment (power, cooling and building environment systems used in
telecommunication networks); Part 12: ICT equipment power, energy and environmental
parameters monitoring information model".
[i.3] ETSI EN 301 605 (V1.1.1) (10-2013): "Environmental Engineering (EE); Earthing and bonding of
400 V DC data and telecom (ICT) equipment".
[i.4] ETSI TS 122 261: "5G; Service requirements for next generation new services and markets (3GPP
TS 22.261)".
[i.5] ETSI TS 110 174-2-2: "Access, Terminals, Transmission and Multiplexing (ATTM); Sustainable
Digital Multiservice Cities; Broadband Deployment and Energy Management; Part 2: Multiservice
Networking Infrastructure and Associated Street Furniture; Sub-part 2: The use of lamp-posts for
hosting sensing devices and 5G networking".
[i.6] Recommendation ITU-T K.64 (06/2016): "Safe working practices for outside equipment installed
in particular environments".
[i.7] Void.
[i.8] EN 50173-1: "Information technology - Generic cabling systems - Part 1: General requirement",
(produced by CEN).
[i.9] IEEE 802.3cg™: "IEEE Approved Draft Standard for Ethernet Amendment 5: Physical Layer
Specifications and Management Parameters for 10 Mb/s Operation and Associated Power Delivery
over a Single Balanced Pair of Conductors".
[i.10] ETSI EN 302 099: "Environmental Engineering (EE); Powering of equipment in access network".
[i.11] ETSI TS 103 553-1: "Environmental Engineering (EE); Innovative energy storage technology for
stationary use; Part 1: Overview".
[i.12] Recommendation ITU-T L.1001 (11/2012): "External universal power adapter solutions for
stationary information and communication technology devices".
[i.13] Recommendation ITU-T L.1200 (05/2012): "Direct current power feeding interface up to 400 V at
the input to telecommunication and ICT equipment".
[i.14] ETSI TS 103 553-1 (V1.1.1) (08-2019): "Environmental Engineering (EE); Innovative energy
storage technology for stationary use; Part 1: Overview".
[i.15] ETSI TS 103 553-2 (V1.1.1) (11-2021): "Environmental Engineering (EE); Innovative energy
storage technology for stationary use;Part 2: Battery".
[i.16] ETSI TS 103 553-3 (V1.1.1) (01-2020): "Environmental Engineering (EE); Innovative energy
storage technology for stationary use; Part 3: Supercapacitor".
[i.17] Recommendation ITU-T L.1350 (10/2016): "Energy efficiency metrics of a base station site".
[i.18] IEEE 802.3™-2018: "IEEE Standard for Ethernet".
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[i.19] IEEE 802.3bt™-2018: "IEEE Standard for Ethernet Amendment 2: Physical Layer and
Management Parameters for Power over Ethernet over 4 pairs".
[i.20] A. Gupta, R. K. Jha: "A Survey of 5G Network: Architecture and Emerging Technologies".
[i.21] CableFree: "5G Frequency bands: Spectrum Allocations for Next-Gen LTE".
3 Definition of terms, symbols and abbreviations
3.1 Terms
For the purposes of the present document, the following terms apply:
cell: radio network object that can be uniquely identified by a user equipment from a (cell) identification that is
broadcasted over a geographical area from one UTRAN or GERAN access point
NOTE 1: A Cell in UTRAN is either FDD or TDD mode.
NOTE 2: As defined in Recommendation ITU-T Q.1743 [i.1].
cloud RAN: RAN functions are partially or completely centralized with two additional key features: pooling of
baseband/hardware resources, and virtualization through general-purpose processors
distributed RAN: network development where RAN processing is fully performed at the site as in 4G
macro cells: outdoor cells with a large cell radius
NOTE: As defined in Recommendation ITU-T Q.1743 [i.1].
micro cells: small cells
NOTE: As defined in Recommendation ITU-T Q.1743 [i.1].
pico cells: cells, mainly indoor cells, with a radius typically less than 50 m
NOTE: As defined in Recommendation ITU-T Q.1743 [i.1]
3.2 Symbols
For the purposes of the present document, the following symbols apply:
C Celsius
kW Kilo Watt
L Litre
l Length
m Milli
R Resistance
W Watt
Ω Ohm
σ Resistivity
3.3 Abbreviations
For the purposes of the present document, the following abbreviations apply:
5G Fifth Generation
AAU Active Antenna Unit
AC Alternating Current
Ah Ampere hours
AI Artificial Intelligence
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BBU Base Band Unit
BCS Battery Control System
BMS Battery Management System
BS Base Station
C-RAN Centralized or Cloud RAN
DC Direct Current
NOTE: Also when used as a suffix to units of measurement.
DG Diesel Generator
DOD Deep Of Discharge
DP Distribution Point
D-RAN Distributed RAN
DSLAM Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplier
EV Electrical Vehicle
FWA Fixed Wireless Access
GND GrouND
GPON Gigabit Passive Optical Network
Hetnets Heterogeneous network
ICT Information Communication Telecommunication
IoT Internet of Things
LFP Lithium Iron Phosphate
MEC Multi-access Edge Computing
MIMO Multi-Input Multi-Output
mmWaves millimetric Waves
MPPT Maximum Power Point Tracking
NE Network Element
OS Optical Splitter
PAV Power Availability Value
PN Power Node
PON Passive Optical Network
PS Power Splitter
PSU Power Supply Unit
PTU Power Transmitter Unit
PV PhotoVoltaic
PVC PolyVinyl Chloride
RAN Radio Access Network
REN Renewable ENergy
RF Radio Frequency
RRH Remote Radio Head
RRU Remote Radio Unit
SEE Site Energy Efficiency
SELV Safety Extra Low Voltage
SOC Status Of Charge
SOH Status Of Health
TDD Time Division Duplex
TTM Time To Market
U Unit
URLLC Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication
UTRAN Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network
UV UltraViolet
4 5G networks
4.1 5G Network general description
Figure 1 is presenting a general end-to-end schematics of 5G network to be powered.
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It includes stationary and mobile equipment:
• Macro cell equipment BS for wide coverage. In most cases, they will be located in the same sites as the macro
BS of the previous mobile generations. The increased energy demand and the much higher availability need of
the 5G equipment will pose tough challenges to the powering infrastructure and will likely require its major
upgrade both on the power capabilities and the backup duration.
• Small cell, to cover small geographical area in indoor/outdoor applications, typically to satisfy data traffic
hot-spots, black-spots and to deliver services at very high frequencies (e.g. mmWaves) that could not be
supported just through macro BS installations. Small cells can be subdivided into:
- Micro cell - normally installed outdoors. Designed to support large number of users in high data traffic
areas, to solve coverage issues and to support very high frequency deployment. Capable to cover
medium/large cells size and suitable for application like smart cities, smart metro, etc.
- Pico cell - normally installed indoors. Suitable for enterprises, shopping centres, stadiums applications,
for extended network coverage and data throughput.
- Femto cell - basically small mobile base stations designed to provide extended coverage for residential
and SoHo applications. Poor signal strength from mobile operator's base stations can be solved using
Femtocell implementation. Femtocells are primarily introduced to offload network congestion, extend
coverage and increase data capacity to indoor users.
• IoT devices and concentrators.
• In network cloud distribution including edge computing.
Also Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) radio access solutions, typically in point-to-multipoint configuration with coverage
across macro and small cells schemes, will contribute to the evolution of ultra-broadband future networks.
Source: "A Survey of 5G Network: Architecture and Emerging Technologies" [i.20].
Figure 1: General principle of a 5G cellular network architecture with interconnectivity among
the different emerging technologies like Massive MIMO network, Cognitive Radio
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4.2 Cells coverage and impacts on powering strategy
In the 4G era, a base station covers a radius of hundreds of metres, while a 5G base station operating at mmWave may
cover only 20 m to 40 m, needing a much higher number of equipment to be spread-out in the field to guarantee
appropriate coverage. More dense deployment will also be needed to cover high traffic areas (e.g. stadiums) and indoor
locations. That could result in much higher network development complexity and costs. In addition, the deployment of
additional base stations is difficult and the site resources are not easy to obtain. Therefore, 5G networks will see a major
development of small cells, in the form of small base stations as the basic unit for ultra-intensive networking, that is,
small base stations dense deployment. In the future, the most likely deployment mode for 5G base station construction
will be low-frequency wide area coverage (macro base station) + high-frequency deep coverage (micro base station), as
shown in Figures 2(a) to 2(c).
Figure 2(a): Deployment mode of the 5G base station
Figure 2(b): Micro base station
Figure 2(c): Macro base station
The typical electrical power demand for Radio Base Stations (macro cell, micro cell and pico or femto cell), with
correlation to aggregated RF power, is available in Table 1, together with power needs of IoT, as they could be based on
powering paradigms similar to those of the Small Cells.
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Table 1: Powering related characteristics of radio base station, Small Cells and IoT
EQUIPMENT
INSTALLATION POW. CONSUMPTION POWERING TYPE Backhauling connection Aggregated RF power
Local Remote mimimum Wireline /
INDOORS INDOORS OUTDOORS TYP MAX BATTERY mains power PoE BACKUP time Wireless Connection flavour MIN MAX
Public sites
Private and Duration
premises enterprises (W) (W) (years) (W) (W)
WIRELESS
COMPLEX MACRO BASE STATION (e.g.
YES
many
2/3/4/5G - multiple freq, massive MIMO X 8000 24000 X many Wireline Optical
hundreds
hours
and multiple operators)
Optical / mmWave
SIMPLE MACRO BASE STATION (e.g. YES Wireline few
X 3000 6000 X / high speed
2/3/4G - single freq and single operator) few hours / wireless hundreds
broadband
Optical / high speed
advised
MICROCELLS X 30 250 X X Wireline 120
minutes
broadband
advised
PICOCELLS (including FWA nodes) X 10 50 X X Wireline ETH/Optical 0,1 1
minutes
FEMTOCELLS X 5 20 X NO Wireline Any Broadband 0,01 0,1
WIRELINE
advised
VDSL2 DSLAMs Cabinets 150 250 X X Wireline Optical
minutes
G.FAST Cabinets 25 40 X Wireline Optical
IoT
Gas & water sensing, metering X very low 10 Wireless LP WAN
Surveillance camera X X 5 20 X X X NO Wireline Any Broadband
Environmental sensing (CO2, NOX, noise,
particulate …) X2 10 X NOWireless LP WAN
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The most appropriate power architecture will depend on the site type, their coverage, location and distance from grid or
from remote power sources.
The power source selection will depend on:
• local grid availability or connection cost and lead time, compared to remote powering;
• services availability (continuity) requirements;
• need to share the power infrastructure between operators;
• availability of renewable energy e.g. photovoltaic;
• possible power connection shared with other user such as street Lighting equipment or electric car charging
stations, etc.
Power Interfaces for each case are described in clause 5.
A possible solution using streetlamp post for small cell deployment can be found in ETSI TS 110 174-2-2 [i.5].
4.3 Type of 5G network and impacts on power load, power
profile and feeding solution
Figures 2(a) to 2(c) give a base on possible 5G cellular network configurations, based on these figures it is possible to
identify 5G required power:
• Per site to define the site power supply and AC grid connection requirement.
• For the remote powering cluster site dedicated to many sites in an area. This will depend on line distances and
maximum aggregated power limit considering the AC grid connection available to this cluster site.
The network can have homogeneous patterns based on 1 to 3 macro cell BS per km², while it can be more
heterogeneous (HetNets) with 10 to 100 cells per km² ranging from macro to femto cells, a possible evolution is
reported in Figure 3:
• To establish the local power system and the number of power access either from AC grid or by DC remote
powering it is necessary to define power requirement and energy consumption of each site and capacity of
NE equipment. The cooling thermal limit and availability of local power can be a determinant parameter.
• To define remote power, the location and configuration are very important as they will need to reuse existing
pairs or existing ducts to install power cable (or hybrid powering/optical cable). In case this would turn out to
be impracticable, it can be considered building new buried or aerial lines although this is going to be more
expensive.
For all cases it is required to know the different type of 5G cells and NE power load profile and its evolution on each
site.
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Figure 3: Evolution of 5G cellular network configurations to HetNets
Figure 4 reports an estimation of possible power request for a full radio site containing different bands for different
developments of 5G technologies.
Figure 4: Estimate radio base station power site rating
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5 Powering solutions
5.0 General
The present clause defines requirements on 5G powering considering different site topologies.
The 5G NE power interface voltages commonly used are listed below:
• ETSI EN 300 132-2 [2] interface A for 40,5 V DC to 72 V DC powering. The equipment of the Remote Radio
Unit (RRU/AAU) is designed to work with the most common powering architectures found in
telecommunications sites with operating voltages in the range -40,5 V DC to 72 V DC. Feeding DC voltages
within such range enables the use of common and lower cost equipment. The use of voltages below 60 V DC
incurs far less demanding safety requirements and eases installation and maintenance. However, within legacy
telecommunications cabling, the need to limit the power losses resulting from the relatively high currents
required restricts the maximum reach of this type of solution.
NOTE: ETSI EN 300 132-2 [2] defines as nominal voltage 48 V DC and voltage of 60 V DC.
• ETSI EN 300 132-1 [1] interface A1 for AC powering.
• Recommendation ITU-T L.1200 [i.13] or ETSI EN 300 132-3 [3] interface P for up to 400 V DC powering.
• Recommendation ITU-T L.1001 [i.12] for low DC voltage 5 V or 12 V e.g. used for little 5G femto or pico
cells.
• IEEE 802-3 [i.18] allows the same cable to provide both data connection and electric power to the devices.
Sometimes referred to as Power over Ethernet (PoE), Recommendation ITU-T L.1220 [i.14] specifies remote
power feeding over 2 and 4 balanced pairs of cables of Category 5 and above (as specified in
EN 50173-1 [i.8]). In addition, IEEE 802.3cg [i.9] specifies remote power feeding of a variety of 1 pair
balanced cables. Both implementations use voltages of below 60 V DC. The power feeding of
IEEE 802.3bt [i.19] provides up to 71 W at the remote equipment using 4 balance pairs at maximum distance
of 100 m while IEEE 802.3cg [i.9] delivers 14 W at 300 m and 2 W at 1 000 m.
The following clauses consider the power requirement for:
• Aggregation and Core equipment room.
• C-RAN and D-RAN site.
5.1 Convergence and Core Room Power Supply
5.1.1 Scenario 1: -48 V DC Power Supply Solution
Figure 5 reports a power feeding distribution in the case to use a -48 V DC power supply solution. The system shall
support -57 V DC power supply, as it is defined in ETSI EN 300 132-2 [2] that the upper limit value of a -48 V DC
system should be -57 V DC.
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NOTE 1: AC2 can be a Diesel generator or any other type of emergency generator.
NOTE 2: Energy storage in some cases can be a fuel cell.
NOTE 3: In some cases WIND generator can be used to replace solar (PV) or in conjunction with them.
Figure 5: Network diagram of -48 V DC power supply solution
5.1.2 Scenario 2: up to 400 V DC Power Supply Solution
Figure 6 reports a power feeding distribution in the case of using an up to 400 V DC power supply solution. The up to
400 V DC system decreases voltage drop on cable and allows a much smaller cable size, which reduces cable
investment and makes it easier to be installed.
NOTE 1: AC2 can be a Diesel generator or any other type of emergency generator.
NOTE 2: Energy storage in some cases can be a fuel cell.
NOTE 3: In some cases WIND generator can be used to replace solar (PV) or in conjunction with them.
Figure 6: Networking diagram of the up to 400 V DC power supply solution
5.1.3 5G Power Supply Solution for aggregation and core equipment room
Considering the changes in the power supply requirements of the 5G network for the core room and future evolution,
the proposed power solution should have the following features:
1) Input and output voltage:
- Multiple energy input and multiple voltage output to meet ICT integration needs.
- Multi-input: multi-type of AC energy inputs and solar (optional WIND) energy input.
- Multi-output: 230 Vac, 400 V DC and other voltages output by adapting different power modules.
2) Lithium batteries:
- Lithium replacing lead-acid battery is expected to reduce more than 60 % footprint to meet the space
requirement of business expansion. Furthermore, the low dependency of lithium to the room temperature
allows installing it in ICT rooms.
- Lithium battery meets anti-fire requirement:
a) battery material: at current stage of technology lithium iron phosphate is required for safety
concern;
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b) safety management: abnormality of external charging voltage and current does not affect battery
safety work;
c) flame-retardant: materials used in battery pack shall meet IEC 60695-11-20 [5];
d) fire control: when the cell has a fire problem, flame inside the battery pack shall not leak outside,
and the temperature of battery pack outer surface shall not exceed 120 °C.
- Lithium discharge capability in parallel: when the modules are connected in parallel, the maximum
discharge capacity can reach P×N without output power derating, P is the maximum discharge capacity
of a single battery, and N is the number of batteries in parallel.
3) Green and efficient:
- The system allows green energy (such as solar energy) access smoothly and gives it priority.
- The system can output -57 V DC, which saves cable loss by 10 % ~ 20 %.
4) Digital and intelligent management: the power system and the room environment information such as humidity
and temperature can be managed by a remote network management system.
5) Additional Safety requirements: safety functions such as safe start up, insulation monitor and AC utility
monitor are needed for enhancing the system safety.
Description:
• Safe start up: system automatically checks the cable route and remote load correctness in a safe voltage mode,
then outputs a voltage up to 400 V DC for remote load.
• Insulation monitor for 400 V DC: monitor system insulation impedance, including + to GND and - to GND.
Triggering alarm or cutting output when impedance is lower than defined threshold.
• AC utility monitor: detect AC voltage on the system. Triggering alarm or cutting output when impedance is
lower than defined threshold.
5.2 Impact of 5G in C-RAN&D-RAN Sites
5.2.1 Changes due to 5G implementation
The power consumption of 5G increases significantly compared with that of the 4G. In the 5G era, for example, the
estimated maximum power consumption 64T64R AAU could be 1 000 W to 1 400 W, and the estimated maximum
power consumption of the BBU could be about 1 200 W to 1 500 W including also actual 3G and 4G cards.
The maximum power consumption of a typical site will exceed 10 kW, while in a site where there are more than
10 bands, the power consumption will exceed 20 kW. In the multi-carrier sharing scenarios, this figure will be doubled.
5.2.2 Construction and Modernization Challenges Posed by 5G Network
Evolution
• Grid Reconstruction Challenges:
- Grid connection sizing of the existing sites may be insufficient due to power consumption increasing
when 5G accesses. Grid modernization is expensive and greatly slows down the pace of 5G deployment.
- Over 30 % of global sites needs grid modernization. The time to modernize the grid is about one year per
site.
• DC Power Distribution Challenges:
- A 5G single-band power distribution requires at least two 100 A inputs (or four 32 A and three 63 A
inputs). For example, over 75 % DC circuit breakers of a
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