Nowadays, at least two billion people are experiencing a complete lack of wireless cellular network coverage. These users live in rural areas and low-income regions, where network operators are not keen to invest, mainly due to high capital expenditure and operational expenditure costs, as well as the scarcity of electricity from the grid. We tackle this challenge by proposing a 5G network explicitly designed to serve rural and low-income areas. Our solution investigates the possibility of mounting remote radio heads on top of unmanned aerial vehicles, as well as large cells (LCs) to increase the coverage range. In addition, 5G nodes are powered by solar panels and batteries. Preliminary results, obtained over three representative case studies located in Italy, Cook Islands, and Zimbabwe, show that providing connectivity in rural and low-income areas by means of the proposed 5G architecture is feasible. At the same time, we also show that the monthly subscription fee paid by the users can be kept sufficiently low, that is, less than €1/month in low-income areas, and around €11/month in rural regions.

We estimate potential energy savings in IP-over-WDM networks achieved by switching off router line cards in low-demand hours. We compare three approaches to react on dynamics in the IP traffic over time, FUFL, DUFL and DUDL. They provide different levels of freedom in adjusting the routing of lightpaths in the WDM layer and the routing of demands in the IP layer. Using MILP models based on realistic network topologies and node architectures as well as realistic demands, power, and cost values, we show that already a simple monitoring of the lightpath utilization in order to deactivate empty line cards (FUFL) brings substantial benefits. The most significant savings, however, are achieved by rerouting traffic in the IP layer (DUFL), which allows emptying and deactivating lightpaths together with the corresponding line cards. A sophisticated reoptimization of the virtual topologies and the routing in the optical domain for every demand scenario (DUDL) yields nearly no additional profits in the considered networks.

A detailed survey of approaches reducing energy consumption of core networks is presented in this paper. We consider a multilayer architecture, in which the optical layer can be realized either with a Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) network or an Elastic Optical Network (EON). We focus on the design and operation stages, i.e., deciding which devices to install in the network during the former step, and choosing which devices to put into sleep mode during the latter one. A taxonomy for classifying the surveyed approaches is provided in order to compare the works covering energy efficiency in core networks (in terms of both optimal formulations and heuristic solutions). Moreover, our work provides a global view of the traffic assumptions, the topologies, and the power consumption models in the literature. The need of further investigations in this field clearly emerges. We envision future works targeting: (1) more effective standardization efforts to practically realize sleep modes; (2) the evaluation of the impact of sleep mode on the device lifetime; (3) the extensive adoption of new paradigms like Software Defined Networking (SDN) and EON; and (4) a radical improvement in the testbed implementations.

This article analyzes the impact that sleep mode (SM)-based green strategies have on the reliability performance of optical and cellular network elements. First, we consider a device in isolation (i.e., not plugged into a network in operation), showing how operational temperature and temperature variations, both introduced by SM, impact its lifetime. We then evaluate, from an operational cost perspective, the impact of these lifetime variations, showing that some devices are critical, that is, their achievable energy savings might not cover the potential additional reparation costs resulting from being put in SM too frequently. Moreover, we present a model for evaluating the impact of SM on the lifetime of a device plugged into an operational network. The analysis considers two case studies (one based on the optical backbone and one on cellular networks) showing that the lifetime of a device is influenced by both the hardware parameters, which depend on the specific design of the device, and the SM parameters, which instead depend on the energy-efficient algorithm used, the network topology, and the traffic variations over time. Our results show that (i) the changes in the operational temperature and the frequency of their variation are two crucial aspects to consider while designing a SM-based green strategy, and (ii) the impact of a certain SM-based strategy on the lifetime of network devices is not homogeneous (i.e., it can vary through the network).