Energy efficiency in O-RAN: a closed-loop approach of a cell switch-off use case

Energy efficiency in mobile networks has become a key focus of stakeholders in the telecom industry, including vendors, Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), academia, and standardization bodies. Recently, the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has made notable progress in developing standardized mechanisms to help MNOs achieve substantial energy savings. One of the potential use cases for energy optimization identified by the O-RAN Alliance is the cell switch-off. By adapting the active cell configuration to real-time traffic demands, network resources can be allocated more efficiently. In this demo, we provide a complete setup that, by monitoring and forecasting the PRB loads of the network via an xApp, we enforce a cell switch-off to reduce energy consumption while maintaining the QoS for users.