Green 6G: Energy Awareness in Design

Usage and application trends for Sixth Generation (6G) networks (based on ITU's IMT-2030 framework) include immersive multimedia and multi-sensory interactions, digital twin and virtual world, smart industries, digital health and well-being, integration of sensing and communication along with ubiquitous connectivity, intelligence, and computing. 6G technology to support such diverse and demanding use case scenarios is also expected to result in minimized and efficient usage of energy. 6G networks designed to address the challenge of environmental sustainability in addition to serving the above use case scenarios can be named “Green 6G”. In Green 6G, the proposal is to include energy awareness in its design along with energy usage optimization at the network level. Users can be provided with information on service-level energy usage in the network including the source of energy (renewable or non-renewable sources), and their (user's) choice should be taken into consideration for service delivery in the network. In this context, there are various ongoing activities in standardization bodies to bring energy awareness into network design. We summarize these standardization initiatives and identify aspects which remain unaddressed in the existing mobile networks. Further, we present the required features of Green 6G design for future networks and highlight associated challenges. We also provide a design perspective for Green 6G architecture as a step towards this direction.