# How Trend of Increasing Data Volume Affects the Energy Efficiency of 5G Networks
## 2 Energy Requirements of 5G Networks  
The deployment of a large number of new 5G macro and especially small BSs dedicated to satisfying trends of ascending DVs will have a significant impact in terms of increased energy requirements related to the power supply of BSs in RANs. Even the energy consumption (EC) reduction expected through the removal of equipment characteristic for some older network generations (e.g., second and especially third), due to obsolescence, will be diminished with the need for installing a vast number of 5G BSs. Therefore, the expected future increase of DVs in mobile access networks will undoubtedly affect the realization of 5G networks according to the goals of the green communications and networking paradigm. Green communications and networking is an emerging strategy dedicated to the development of novel energy-efficient solutions, which will minimize the usage of network resources for reducing network energy consumption whenever possible. The design of previous cellular network generations was dominantly focused on improving network performance through maximizing throughput and spectral efficiency at the expense of EC. The EE improvements contributing to the realization of the green communications paradigm in pre-5G cellular or local wireless networks were mainly dedicated to solutions related to BSs transmit power and activity adjustments according to dynamic variations of DVs [4; 5]. Moreover, green communication solutions related to the supplying of BSs site with renewable energy sources, which have been capacitated according to the daily and monthly traffic DV variations on BS site, have been envisioned as a possible solution to improve network energy efficiency [6]. Although hardware components of 5G BSs are more energy-efficient than those of previous generations of BSs (2G, 3G and 4G), the amount of EC of 5G radio access networks is expected to increase due to the need for fulfilling new 5G requirements, such as accommodation of vast DVs, ultrahigh data rates and/or ultralow latencies needed for ensuring some new services. This increase in the EC presents not just an economic issue reflected in an increase of operational costs for mobile network operators (MNOs), but also in an environmental issue due to increased carbon emissions and strategic issue due to alienation from the main goals of green communications paradigm. Therefore, ensuring the energy-efficient operation of RAN in 5G networks has become one of the major challenges analyzed in the literature [7; 8]. This challenge is further contributed to by the fact that MNOs must adapt the number of BSs and corresponding capacities according to the expected number of users and their DVs. Classification of device density classes (areas) in 5G networks performed by ETSI in References [9; 10] indicates that the number of users and corresponding DVs can significantly vary per specific device density class (Table 1). Moreover, due to the global population growth, the advent of new and more capacity-demanding applications, the proliferation of the Internet of Everything (IoE) concept and \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**User Density Class**} & **Average UL** & **Average DL** & **DVs for 10–100\%** & **Maximal Density** & **DV Percentage (\%)** \\  & **Throughput (Mbit/s)** & **Throughput (Mbit/s)** & **of Max DV** & **of User Devices** & **Transmitted by** \\  & & & **(Gb/km\({}^{2}\))** & **(/km\({}^{2}\))** & **Macro BSs for** \\ \hline Indoor hotspot & 26.67 & 200 & 5667–56,668 & 250,000 & 0.420–0.042 \\ \hline Dense urban & 50 & 300 & 875–8750 & 25,000 & 1.370–0.137 \\ \hline Urban & 25 & 50 & 75–750 & 10,000 & 8.00–0.80 \\ \hline Rural & 25 & 50 & 4.5–45 & 600 & 66.70–6.67 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 1: Parameter values for the various device density classes and analyzed BS types. the increase in the number of devices per user, the DV increase in any device density class will have continuous progress throughout the 2020s.