Power consumption reduction apparatus and power consumption reduction method

Abstract

The present invention realizes a specified technology configuration capable of reducing power consumption of a virtualized DU (vDU) by utilizing a cell resource pooling operation between DUs according to a virtualized DU (vDU) technology, thereby solving an existing limitation that power consumption is large compared to a non-virtualized DU without an additional increase in complexity.

Description

Power-saving device and power-saving method

[0001] The present invention relates to a technology for reducing power consumption of a distributed unit (DU).

[0002] This application claims the benefit of application number 10-2023-0148038, filed October 31, 2023, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference for all purposes.

[0003] In implementing base station equipment, the technology for separately implementing the Radio Unit (RU) responsible for transmitting and receiving signals in the wireless section has emerged / been utilized, enabling an environment in which multiple RUs are connected to one Distributed Unit (DU) and operate as one cell or different cells.

[0004] Meanwhile, with the advent of 5G (NR), Open RAN (Radio Access Network, O-RAN) technology emerged as a solution to address the need for additional infrastructure expansion and the increasing costs of base station installation and operation for communication service operators.

[0005] Simply put, O-RAN is a technology that standardizes the interface that connects the equipment required for implementing base station devices to enable interoperability, and based on O-RAN, RUs (hereinafter O-RUs) and DUs (hereinafter O-DUs) from different manufacturers / vendors can operate in interoperability.

[0006] The O-RAN system based on this O-RAN has a structure in which equipment developed from different manufacturers / vendors, namely, CU (Centralized Unit, hereinafter referred to as O-CU), O-DU, O-RU, and intelligent base station control devices (e.g., SMO, RIC, etc.) for controlling base station devices (O-CU / O-DU / O-RU) composed of these equipment, operate in conjunction with each other.

[0007] Meanwhile, with the advancement of hardware (HW) and virtualization technology, research and development on virtualized DU (hereinafter, vDU) is underway.

[0008] With the introduction of this vDU technology, it is expected that various advantages will be achieved compared to existing non-virtualized DUs, such as the ability to escape from the manufacturer / vendor dependency of equipment development, the advantage of flexible HW / SW configuration, and the introduction of virtualization-specific operations.

[0009] However, from the perspective of power consumption per cell connected to vDU, there is a limitation that power consumption is greater than that of non-virtualized DU, and this is one of the important tasks that must be solved for the introduction of vDU.

[0010] In the present invention, a new technology for reducing power consumption of a DU, especially a virtualized DU (vDU), is proposed.

[0011] The problem to be solved in the present invention is to realize a specific technical method capable of reducing power consumption of a virtualized DU (vDU) by utilizing virtualization-specific operations according to virtualized DU (vDU) technology.

[0012] According to one aspect of the present invention, a power consumption reduction device for a Distributed Unit (DU) includes: a memory including a command; and a processor that, by executing the command, determines the cell arrangement of each DU to be controlled so that the total power consumption of each DU is minimized based on a cell resource pooling operation between the DUs.

[0013] Specifically, the processor may define a DU power consumption correlation according to resource usage rate and a resource usage correlation according to the load of the receiving cell based on the collected information for each DU of the control target, and may determine the cell arrangement of each DU using the defined correlation.

[0014] Specifically, the above-mentioned collected information may be information indicating at least one of the DU's resource usage rate, power consumption, number of cells accommodated, load per cell, and allocated resource per cell.

[0015] Specifically, the processor selects a specific DU among each DU of the control target as a target for power consumption reduction, and can relocate a specific Cell, which has the largest power gain in terms of the estimated total power consumption when placed in another DU among each Cell of the specific DU, from the specific DU to the other DU.

[0016] Specifically, the specific DU may be a DU sequentially selected from among the low-efficiency / medium-efficiency / high-efficiency sections, which are distinguished based on the increase in power consumption compared to the increase in resource usage rate in the DU power consumption correlation according to the predefined resource usage rate among each DU of the control target, from the DU belonging to the low-efficiency section to the DU belonging to the medium-efficiency section.

[0017] Specifically, the other DU may be selected from among the DUs of the control target that fall within the high-efficiency section each time the specific DU is selected, or, if it is impossible to select a DU that falls within the high-efficiency section, may be selected from a DU that falls within the medium-efficiency section.

[0018] Specifically, the processor, using the correlation defined above, estimates the power consumption reduction of the specific DU and the power consumption increase of the other DU when disposing the corresponding Cell to another DU for each Cell of the specific DU among the DUs of the control target, estimates the power gain of the total power consumption as the difference value, and can relocate the specific Cell, among the cells of the specific DU, which has the largest power gain of the total power consumption estimated by the difference value for each Cell, from the specific DU to the other DU.

[0019] A method for reducing power consumption for a Distributed Unit (DU) according to one aspect of the present invention may include a step of defining a correlation to be used for cell placement of each DU to be controlled; and a step of determining cell placement of each DU to be controlled so that the total power consumption of each DU is minimized based on a cell resource pooling operation between DUs using the defined correlation.

[0020] Specifically, the step of defining above can define a correlation between DU power consumption according to resource usage rate and a correlation between resource usage rate according to load of the receiving cell, based on collected information for each DU of the control target.

[0021] Specifically, the step of determining the cell arrangement may include selecting a specific DU among each DU of the control target as a target for power consumption reduction, and relocating a specific cell with the largest power gain in the estimated total power consumption when arranged in another DU among each cell of the specific DU from the specific DU to the other DU.

[0022] Specifically, the specific DU may be a DU sequentially selected from among the low-efficiency / medium-efficiency / high-efficiency sections, which are distinguished based on the increase in power consumption compared to the increase in resource usage rate in the DU power consumption correlation according to the predefined resource usage rate among each DU of the control target, from the DU belonging to the low-efficiency section to the DU belonging to the medium-efficiency section.

[0023] Specifically, the other DU may be selected from among the DUs of the control target that fall within the high-efficiency section each time the specific DU is selected, or, if it is impossible to select a DU that falls within the high-efficiency section, may be selected from a DU that falls within the medium-efficiency section.

[0024] Specifically, the step of determining the cell arrangement may include, using the correlation defined above, estimating the power consumption reduction of the specific DU and the power consumption increase of the other DU when the corresponding cell is arranged in another DU for each cell of a specific DU among each DU of the control target, estimating the power gain of the total power consumption as the difference value, and relocating the specific Cell having the largest power gain of the total power consumption estimated by the difference value for each Cell among the specific DUs from the specific DU to the other DU.

[0025] According to one aspect of the present invention, a computer program may be stored in a medium to execute a step of determining the cell arrangement of each DU to be controlled so that the total power consumption of each DU is minimized based on a cell resource pooling operation between the DUs, in combination with hardware that controls the Distributed Unit (DU).

[0026] Accordingly, according to an embodiment of the present invention, a new technology method embodied with low complexity is realized to reduce power consumption of a virtualized DU (vDU) by utilizing virtualization-specific operations according to the virtualized DU (vDU) technology.

[0027] Accordingly, according to the present invention, in introducing virtualized DU (vDU) technology, it is possible to achieve the effect of resolving the existing limitation of higher power consumption compared to non-virtualized DU without additional increase in complexity.

[0028] Figure 1 is an example diagram illustrating the cell resource allocation of a virtualized DU (vDU).

[0029] FIG. 2 is a drawing showing the configuration of a power consumption reduction device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0030] FIG. 3 is an exemplary diagram illustrating a cell placement case of a virtualized DU (vDU) to which the present invention is applied.

[0031] Figure 4 is an example graph explaining the correlation between DU power consumption and resource usage rate defined in the present invention.

[0032] Figure 5 is an example graph explaining the correlation between resource usage rate and load of the receiving cell defined in the present invention.

[0033] Figures 6 and 7 are graphs showing examples of the division of low efficiency / medium efficiency / high efficiency sections utilized in the present invention.

[0034] Figure 8 is a flowchart illustrating a method for reducing power consumption according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0035] Hereinafter, various embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the attached drawings.

[0036] The present invention relates to a technology for reducing power consumption of a distributed unit (DU).

[0037] In implementing base station equipment, the technology for separately implementing the Radio Unit (RU) responsible for transmitting and receiving signals in the wireless section has emerged / been utilized, enabling an environment in which multiple RUs are connected to one Distributed Unit (DU) and operate as one cell or different cells.

[0038] Meanwhile, with the advent of 5G (NR), Open RAN (Radio Access Network, O-RAN) technology emerged as a solution to address the need for additional infrastructure expansion and the increasing costs of base station installation and operation for communication service operators.

[0039] Simply put, O-RAN is a technology that standardizes the interface that connects the equipment required for implementing base station devices to enable interoperability, and based on O-RAN, RUs (hereinafter O-RUs) and DUs (hereinafter O-DUs) from different manufacturers / vendors can operate in interoperability.

[0040] The O-RAN system based on this O-RAN has a structure in which equipment developed from different manufacturers / vendors, namely, CU (Centralized Unit, hereinafter referred to as O-CU), O-DU, O-RU, and intelligent base station control devices (e.g., SMO, RIC, etc.) for controlling base station devices (O-CU / O-DU / O-RU) composed of these equipment, operate in conjunction with each other.

[0041] Meanwhile, with the advancement of hardware (HW) and virtualization technology, research and development on virtualized DU (hereinafter, vDU) is underway.

[0042] Figure 1 shows an example of allocating resources by cell in a virtualized DU (vDU, e.g., vDU #1, #2).

[0043] With the introduction of this vDU technology, it is expected that various advantages will be achieved compared to existing non-virtualized DUs, such as the ability to escape from the manufacturer / vendor dependency of equipment development, the advantage of flexible HW / SW configuration, and the introduction of virtualization-specific operations.

[0044] However, from the perspective of power consumption per cell connected to vDU, there is a limitation that power consumption is greater than that of non-virtualized DU, and this is one of the important tasks that must be solved for the introduction of vDU.

[0045] In this regard, the O-RAN Alliance is currently promoting standardization by including the O-Cloud Energy Saving Work-Item in the scope of the Network Energy Saving (NES) Feature to reduce power consumption of virtualized equipment including vDU.

[0046] In the present invention, a new technology for reducing power consumption of DU, especially vDU, is proposed.

[0047] Meanwhile, among the virtualization-specific operations based on vDU technology, there is a Cell Resource Pooling operation between DUs based on Scale-in / Out operation.

[0048] Cell resource pooling operation between DUs is a specialized function / operation that is only possible in vDUs and is not possible in existing non-virtualized DUs.

[0049] An example of the Cell Resource Pooling operation between DUs is that when the load handled by one vDU is large, some of the Cell resources being accommodated by the vDU can be moved to another vDU.

[0050] Accordingly, the present invention seeks to realize a specific technical method capable of reducing power consumption of vDUs by utilizing, among virtualization-specific operations according to vDU technology, particularly, cell resource pooling operations between DUs.

[0051] Hereinafter, with reference to FIG. 2, the configuration of a power consumption reduction device (100) that realizes a new technical solution (hereinafter, power consumption reduction method) proposed in the present invention will be described.

[0052] Before going into specific details, the present invention is a technology for vDU, and can be applied to existing 4G (LTE), 5G (NR), and future 6G, and can be applied to both existing RAN systems and O-RAN systems.

[0053] However, in the following description, for convenience of explanation, the features and various embodiments of the present invention will be described based on the 5G (NR) standard and O-RAN system.

[0054] Accordingly, the vDU illustrated in FIG. 2 may be a virtualized O-DU, and each Cell connected to the vDU may be a Cell of each RU connected to the virtualized O-DU.

[0055] As illustrated in FIG. 2, the power consumption reduction device (100) proposed in the present invention may include a memory (not shown) including a command, and a processor (hereinafter, correlation definition unit (110), cell placement determination unit (120)) that determines the cell placement of each DU (vDU #1,...,#N) of the control target so that the total power consumption of each DU (vDU #1,...,#N) is minimized based on a cell resource pooling operation between DUs by executing the command.

[0056] The power consumption reduction device (100) of the present invention can be implemented in an upper intelligent base station control device (e.g., SMO, RIC, etc.) for controlling a base station device (O-CU / O-DU / O-RU) in an O-RAN system, can be implemented as a separate device, and can be distributedly implemented in an upper control device (e.g., SMO, RIC, etc.) and a DU.

[0057] However, in the following description, the power consumption reduction device (100) of the present invention will be described as an example in which it is implemented in an intelligent base station control device (e.g., SMO, RIC, etc.).

[0058] The core features of the power consumption reduction method proposed in the present invention are a function of defining information (e.g., DU power consumption correlation according to resource usage rate, resource usage rate correlation according to load of receiving cell) to be utilized in optimal cell placement for each DU (vDU #1,...,#N) of the control target, and a function of performing cell rearrangement through cell resource pooling operation between DUs by utilizing this to determine optimal cell placement for each DU (vDU #1,...,#N).

[0059] To this end, each functional unit implemented in the power consumption reduction device (100, e.g., SMO, RIC, etc.) of the present invention will be described in detail.

[0060] The correlation definition unit (110) performs an operation of defining a DU power consumption correlation according to resource usage rate and a resource usage rate correlation according to the load of the receiving cell, based on the collected information for each DU (vDU #1,...,#N) of the control target.

[0061] Specifically, the power consumption of a virtualized DU, or vDU, is affected by the current resource utilization rate (e.g., CPU utilization) in the vDU, and the resource utilization rate is affected by the number of cells, number of UEs, traffic load, etc. that the vDU accommodates.

[0062] In the present invention, information affecting the power consumption of vDUs is measured in advance or collected in real time, and based on this, information for use in optimal cell placement, i.e., correlation between DU power consumption according to resource utilization and correlation between resource utilization according to load of the receiving cell, is defined.

[0063] To explain a specific embodiment, the power consumption reduction device (100, particularly the correlation definition unit (110)) of the present invention can define, for each DU (vDU #1,...,#N) of the control target, a DU power consumption correlation according to the resource usage rate and a resource usage rate correlation according to the load of the receiving cell through a pre-measurement method.

[0064] To explain another specific embodiment, the power consumption reduction device (100, particularly the correlation definition unit (110)) of the present invention can define / update the DU power consumption correlation according to the resource usage rate and the resource usage rate correlation according to the load of the receiving cell through a real-time request / response information collection method for each DU (vDU #1,...,#N) of the control target.

[0065] For example, a power consumption reduction device (100, particularly a correlation definition unit (110)) can request information from each DU (vDU #1,...,#N) of a control target periodically or upon a preset request event.

[0066] The types of information requested at this time may include DU resource usage rate, power consumption, number of cells accommodated, load per cell, and allocated resources per cell.

[0067] Accordingly, in the present invention, each DU (vDU #1,...,#N) can respond / reply with information such as its own resource usage rate, power consumption, number of cells accommodated, load per cell, and allocated resource per cell, in response to a request from the power consumption reduction device (100) of the present invention.

[0068] Accordingly, the power consumption reduction device (100, particularly the correlation definition unit (110)) of the present invention can define a DU power consumption correlation according to resource usage rate and a resource usage correlation according to the load of the receiving cell based on information collected through real-time request / response from each DU (vDU #1,...,#N).

[0069] Furthermore, the power consumption reduction device (100, particularly the correlation definition unit (110)) of the present invention, when defining the DU power consumption correlation according to the resource usage rate and the resource usage rate correlation according to the load of the receiving cell as described above, can update the DU power consumption correlation according to the resource usage rate and the resource usage rate correlation according to the load of the receiving cell in real time through real-time information collection.

[0070] Accordingly, in the power consumption reduction device (100) of the present invention, for each vDU (vDU #1,...,#N) of the control target in the target DU Pool, the DU power consumption correlation according to the resource usage rate is defined as in Table 1 below, and can be updated in real time for each information collection.

[0071]

[0072] In addition, in the power consumption reduction device (100) of the present invention, for each vDU (vDU #1,...,#N) of the control target in the target DU Pool, the resource usage correlation according to the load of the receiving cell can be defined as in Table 2 below, and updated in real time for each information collection.

[0073]

[0074] The power consumption of vDU can vary within the range of minimum (Min) to maximum (Max) depending on the resource usage rate.

[0075] In the present invention, the correlation between DU power consumption and resource usage rate is a correlation that defines the change in power consumption of vDU by relating it to the resource usage rate, and may have a non-linear form.

[0076] Meanwhile, in order to estimate and find out the degree of change (increase or decrease) in the power consumption of vDUs due to cell relocation, information on the degree of change in the resource usage rate of vDUs according to the load of the accepted cells is required.

[0077] For example, when accommodating a cell with a PRB (Physical Resource Block) Load of 0% and when accommodating a cell with a PRB Load of 100%, the degree of change in the resource utilization of the vDU will be different.

[0078] In the present invention, the correlation between resource usage rate and load of the receiving cell is a correlation that defines the degree of change in resource usage rate of vDU by relating it to the load of the receiving cell, and may have a non-linear form.

[0079] In relation to this, Fig. 3 shows various cell arrangement cases of vDU to which the present invention is applied.

[0080] For convenience of explanation, in Fig. 3, two vDUs #1 and #2 are shown as vDUs within a centralized control unit (target DU Pool) under the control of one SMO (e.g., power saving device (100)).

[0081] As can be seen in Fig. 3, the cell placement in virtualized DUs, i.e., vDU #1 and #2, can be as in Case 1, by placing / accommodating 3 cells (loads of 80, 100, and 55 per cell) in vDU #1 and placing / accommodating 3 cells (loads of 75, 100, and 15 per cell) in vDU #12.

[0082] Additionally, the cell arrangement in vDU #1,#2 may vary, such as Case 2 or Case 3, depending on the situation.

[0083] In this regard, FIGS. 4 and 5 illustrate, in graph form, the correlation between DU power consumption and resource usage according to the load of the receiving cell, defined according to the present invention, in the cell arrangement case of vDU #1 and #2 shown in FIG. 3.

[0084] As can be seen in Fig. 4, the correlation between DU power consumption and resource usage rate can be expressed as different types of nonlinear graphs (Example curves 1, 2, 3) for each cell arrangement case of vDU #1 and #2.

[0085] In addition, as can be seen in Fig. 5, the correlation between resource utilization rate and (Traffic) Load of the receiving Cell can be expressed as a nonlinear graph of different shapes (Example curve 1, 2, 3) for each Cell placement Case of vDU #1 and #2.

[0086] The cell placement decision unit (120) performs an operation to determine the cell placement of each DU (vDU #1,...,#N) so that the total power consumption of each DU (vDU #1,...,#N) of the control target is minimized based on the cell resource pooling operation between DUs.

[0087] Specifically, the cell placement decision unit (120) can optimally determine the cell placement of each DU (vDU #1,...,#N) from the perspective of power consumption by using the DU power consumption correlation according to the resource usage rate defined by the correlation definition unit (110) and the resource usage rate correlation according to the load of the receiving cell.

[0088] And, in the power consumption reduction device (100) of the present invention, for each DU (vDU #1,...,#N), cell re-arrangement can be performed through a cell resource pooling operation between DUs according to the cell arrangement decision of the cell arrangement decision unit (120).

[0089] Below, a detailed configuration will be described regarding the process of optimally determining the cell arrangement of each DU (vDU #1,...,#N) in terms of power consumption in the present invention.

[0090] According to one embodiment, the cell placement decision unit (120) selects a specific DU as a power consumption reduction target among each DU (vDU #1,...,#N) of the control targets.

[0091] In addition, the cell placement decision unit (120) can decide to relocate a specific cell, among the cells of a selected specific DU, which has the largest power gain in terms of the total power consumption estimated when placed in another DU, from the specific DU to the other DU.

[0092] At this time, the "specific DU" of the power consumption reduction target selected from among each DU (vDU #1,...,#N) of the control target may be a DU sequentially selected from among the low efficiency / medium efficiency / high efficiency sections, which are distinguished based on the increase in power consumption compared to the increase in resource usage rate in the DU power consumption correlation according to the tactic resource usage rate, from the DU belonging to the low efficiency section to the DU belonging to the medium efficiency section.

[0093] Specifically, in the present invention, in the correlation between DU power consumption and resource usage rate defined in the tactic, low efficiency / medium efficiency / high efficiency sections can be distinguished based on the increase in power consumption compared to the increase in resource usage rate, that is, the slope when expressed in a graph.

[0094] In relation to this, Figures 6 and 7 show examples of dividing low efficiency / medium efficiency / high efficiency sections based on the slope, that is, the increase in power consumption compared to the increase in resource usage, in a graph of the correlation between DU power consumption and resource usage.

[0095] Figure 6 shows an example of the low efficiency / medium efficiency / high efficiency section distinction in the DU power consumption correlation according to resource usage rate in the form of a convex curve with a convex bottom.

[0096] Figure 7 shows an example of the low-efficiency / medium-efficiency / high-efficiency section distinction in the DU power consumption correlation according to resource usage rate in the form of a concave curve.

[0097] As can be seen in Figures 6 and 7, the high-efficiency section is a section with a small slope corresponding to the increase in power consumption compared to the increase in resource utilization, the low-efficiency section is a section with a large slope, and the medium-efficiency section is a section with a normal slope.

[0098] Accordingly, the cell placement decision unit (120) can sequentially perform a rearrangement decision procedure in which, among each DU (vDU #1,...,#N) of the control target, DUs belonging to the low-efficiency section are selected as "specific DUs" one by one, and a specific Cell (the Cell with the largest power gain in the total power consumption estimated when placed in another DU) among each Cell of the specific DU is rearranged to another DU.

[0099] In further expansion, the Cell placement decision unit (120) can sequentially perform the tactical relocation decision procedure while selecting DUs belonging to the intermediate efficiency section one by one as “specific DUs” when there is no DU belonging to the low-efficiency section among each DU (vDU #1,...,#N) of the control target or when the relocation decision procedure has been sequentially performed for all DUs belonging to the tactical low-efficiency section.

[0100] Below, we will specifically describe the relocation decision procedure for relocating a specific cell among each cell of a specific DU to another DU.

[0101] The cell placement decision unit (120) can determine the section to which each DU (vDU #1,...,#N) belongs in the DU power consumption correlation according to the previously defined resource usage rate by using one of the resource usage rates and power consumption rates confirmed in real time from each DU (vDU #1,...,#N) of the control target.

[0102] Accordingly, the cell placement decision unit (120) can select one DU belonging to the low-efficiency section among each DU (vDU #1,...,#N) of the control target as a “specific DU.”

[0103] For example, the cell placement decision unit (120) can arbitrarily select one of the DUs belonging to the low-efficiency section as a “specific DU.”

[0104] Alternatively, if the cell placement decision unit (120) has efficiency information for each DU (vDU #1,...,#N), it may first select the DU with the worst efficiency among the DUs belonging to the low-efficiency section as a “specific DU.”

[0105] The "specific DU" selected in this manner will be referred to as source_vDU_i in the following explanation. Here, i means the ith "specific DU" selected as the target of power consumption reduction.

[0106] When source_vDU_i is selected as a specific DU in this way, the cell placement decision unit (120) uses the correlation defined above to estimate the power consumption reduction of source_vDU_i and the power consumption increase of the other DU when the corresponding Cell is placed in another DU for each Cell of a specific DU (vDU #1,...,#N) of the control target.

[0107] And, the cell placement decision unit (120) can estimate the power gain of the total power consumption for each DU (vDU #1,...,#N) of the control target as the difference value between the power consumption reduction of the estimated source_vDU_i and the power consumption increase of the other DU.

[0108] Here, the "other DU" may be selected from among the DUs (vDU #1,...,#N) of the control target in terms of the DU power consumption correlation according to the resource usage rate whenever a specific DU of the tactic, i.e., source_vDU_i, is selected, or if it is impossible to select a DU belonging to the high-efficiency section, it may be selected from a DU belonging to the medium-efficiency section.

[0109] To explain more specifically, the cell placement decision unit (120) randomly selects one cell among each cell of a specific DU, i.e., source_vDU_i (hereinafter, candi_Cell_i), and estimates the power consumption reduction of source_vDU_i when the selected candi_Cell_i is removed from source_vDU_i.

[0110] To this end, the cell placement decision unit (120) estimates the resource usage rate of source_vDU_i after candi_Cell_i is removed from source_vDU_i by using the resource usage rate correlation according to the load of the previously defined acceptance cell.

[0111] For example, according to the following mathematical expression 1, the resource usage rate of source_vDU_i can be estimated after candi_Cell_i is removed from source_vDU_i.

[0112]

[0113] Thereafter, the cell placement decision unit (120) can estimate the power consumption reduction of source_vDU_i according to the resource usage rate of source_vDU_i estimated according to mathematical expression 1, using the DU power consumption correlation according to the resource usage rate defined above.

[0114] For example, according to the following mathematical expression 2, the power consumption reduction of source_vDU_i (△power_Consumptionsource_vDU_i,candi_Cell_i) after candi_Cell_i is removed from source_vDU_i can be estimated.

[0115]

[0116] Meanwhile, the Cell placement decision unit (120) selects an “other DU” belonging to a high-efficiency section among each DU (vDU #1,...,#N) of the control target in the DU power consumption correlation according to the resource usage rate (hereinafter, target_vDU_i).

[0117] Specifically, if the cell placement decision unit (120) has efficiency information for each DU (vDU #1,...,#N), it can select the DU with the best efficiency among the DUs belonging to the high-efficiency section as target_vDU_i, and if there is no DU that can be selected in the high-efficiency section, it can select target_vDU_i in the intermediate-efficiency section.

[0118] And the Cell placement decision unit (120) estimates the increase in power consumption of target_vDU_i when candi_Cell_i, previously selected from source_vDU_i as a specific DU, is placed / accepted in target_vDU_i.

[0119] To this end, first, the cell placement decision unit (120) estimates the resource usage rate of target_vDU_i after candi_Cell_i is placed / accepted in target_vDU_i by using the resource usage rate correlation according to the load of the previously defined acceptance cell.

[0120] For example, according to the following mathematical expression 3, the resource usage rate of target_vDU_i can be estimated after candi_Cell_i is placed / accepted in target_vDU_i.

[0121]

[0122] And the Cell placement decision unit (120) can estimate the increase in power consumption of target_vDU_i according to the resource usage rate of target_vDU_i estimated according to mathematical expression 3 by using the DU power consumption correlation according to the resource usage rate defined above.

[0123] For example, according to the following mathematical expression 4, the increase in power consumption of target_vDU_i (△power_Consumptiontarget_vDU_i,candi_Cell_i) after candi_Cell_i is placed / accepted in target_vDU_i can be estimated.

[0124]

[0125] Thereafter, the Cell placement decision unit (120) may add candi_Cell_i to the set of cell candidates for re-arrangement of source_vDU_i if the previously estimated power consumption reduction (△power_Consumptionsource_vDU_i,candi_Cell_i) of source_vDU_i is greater than the previously estimated power consumption increase (△power_Consumptiontarget_vDU_i,candi_Cell_i), and may add the difference value between target_vDU_i, the estimated power consumption reduction of source_vDU_i, and the power consumption increase of target_vDU_i.

[0126] Here, the difference between the estimated power consumption reduction of source_vDU_i and the estimated power consumption increase of target_vDU_i will ultimately mean the "power gain of the total power consumption" for each DU (vDU #1,...,#N) of the estimated control target when candi_Cell_i is rearranged from source_vDU_i to target_vDU_i.

[0127] Meanwhile, the cell placement decision unit (120) stops the subsequent procedures for the specific cell (candi_Cell_i) of source_vDU_i when the resource usage rate (vDU_resourcetarget_vDU_i+candi_Cell_i) of target_vDU_i estimated in mathematical expression 3 exceeds a preset standard.

[0128] And, the Cell placement decision unit (120) can randomly select another Cell among each Cell of source_vDU_i (hereinafter, candi_Cell_i), and, through the same process as described above, estimate the power consumption reduction of source_vDU_i when candi_Cell_i is removed from source_vDU_i, estimate the power consumption increase of source_vDU_i when candi_Cell_i is placed / accepted in target_vDU_i, and perform a process of adding the difference value of candi_Cell_i, target_vDU_i, to the set of candidate cells for relocation of source_vDU_i based on the difference.

[0129] In this way, the Cell placement decision unit (120) performs the same process as described above for each randomly selected Cell, for source_vDU_i selected as a specific DU, the estimation of the power consumption reduction of source_vDU_i when candi_Cell_i is removed from source_vDU_i, the estimation of the power consumption increase of source_vDU_i when candi_Cell_i is placed / accepted in target_vDU_i, and the process of adding candi_Cell_i, target_vDU_i, and the difference value to the set of candidate cells for relocation of source_vDU_i based on the difference.

[0130] In this way, the set of relocation candidate cells of source_vDU_i selected this time as a specific DU will gather information (candi_Cell_i, target_vDU_i, difference value) of cells among each cell of source_vDU_i whose difference value (power gain of total power consumption) is a positive value (+ value).

[0131] Accordingly, the Cell placement decision unit (120) can decide to relocate one specific Cell (candi_Cell_i) with the largest difference value, i.e., “power gain of total power consumption”, from the set of relocation candidate Cells of source_vDU_i, to target_vDU_i, after completing the same process described above for all Cells of source_vDU_i selected this time as a specific DU.

[0132] In this way, the cell placement decision unit (120) can sequentially proceed with a relocation decision procedure in which, among each DU (vDU #1,...,#N) of the control target, a DU belonging to a low-efficiency section is selected as a "specific DU (source_vDU_i)" one by one, and a specific Cell (candi_Cell_i) with the largest difference value, i.e., "power gain of total power consumption", is relocated from source_vDU_i to target_vDU_i in the relocation candidate Cell set.

[0133] In further expansion, the Cell placement decision unit (120) may sequentially perform a relocation decision procedure in which, among each DU (vDU #1,...,#N) of the control target, there is no DU belonging to a low-efficiency section or all DUs belonging to the aforementioned low-efficiency section are sequentially relocated, while selecting DUs belonging to an intermediate-efficiency section one by one as "specific DUs (source_vDU_i)", and relocating one specific Cell (candi_Cell_i) with the largest difference value, i.e., "power gain of total power consumption", from source_vDU_i to target_vDU_i.

[0134] Accordingly, the power consumption reduction device (100) of the present invention can perform cell re-arrangement through cell resource pooling operation between DUs according to the optimal cell (re)arrangement decision made by the cell arrangement decision unit (120) so that the total power consumption of each DU (vDU #1,...,#N) is minimized.

[0135] As described in detail in the above embodiments, according to the present invention, by utilizing virtualization-specific operations according to virtualization DU (vDU) technology, particularly cell resource pooling operations between DUs, a specific technology configuration capable of reducing power consumption of a virtualization DU (vDU) is realized by performing cell rearrangement in a direction in which the total power consumption of vDUs within a DU Pool can be minimized.

[0136] In particular, in the present invention, for a specific DU (source_vDU_i) that is sequentially selected, a sequential relocation is implemented in which a Cell (candi_Cell_i having the largest difference value (="power gain of total power consumption") in the set of relocation candidate Cells) that is judged to be effective for relocation among the Cells of the specific DU (source_vDU_i) and another DU (target_vDU_i) that will accommodate it are specified and relocation is performed.

[0137] That is, the present invention, taking into account that cell rearrangement may cause service impact, implements sequential rearrangement that performs rearrangement by specifying a cell and another DU (target_vDU_i) that will accommodate the cell for a specific DU (source_vDU_i) that is sequentially selected rather than rearranging all cells at once, thereby realizing a cell rearrangement technique with low complexity without causing service impact.

[0138] In this way, according to the present invention, a new technology method embodied with low complexity is realized to reduce power consumption of a virtualized DU (vDU) by utilizing virtualization-specific operations according to the virtualized DU (vDU) technology.

[0139] Accordingly, according to the present invention, in introducing virtualized DU (vDU) technology, it is possible to achieve the effect of resolving the existing limitation of greater power consumption compared to non-virtualized DU without additional increase in complexity.

[0140] Figure 8 specifically describes a power consumption reduction method according to one embodiment of the present invention. In the following description, the aforementioned power consumption reduction device (100) will be mentioned as the subject of the method.

[0141] According to the power consumption reduction method of the present invention, although omitted in the illustration of FIG. 8, information affecting the power consumption of the vDU for each vDU (vDU #1,...,#N) of the control target in the target DU Pool can be measured in advance or collected in real time, and based on this, information for use in optimal cell placement, i.e., DU power consumption correlation according to resource utilization rate and resource utilization correlation according to load of the receiving cell can be defined.

[0142] According to the power consumption reduction method of the present invention, a power consumption reduction device (e.g., SMO, RIC, etc.) can select one DU belonging to a low-efficiency section in the DU power consumption correlation according to the resource usage rate defined above among each DU (vDU #1,...,#N) of the control target as a "specific DU" (S10).

[0143] Furthermore, according to the power consumption reduction method of the present invention, if it is impossible to select a “specific DU” belonging to a low-efficiency section (S10 “no corresponding vDU”), the power consumption reduction device (e.g., SMO, RIC, etc.) can select one DU belonging to the WNDRKS efficiency section as a “specific DU” (S15).

[0144] The “specific DU” selected in this way will be referred to as source_vDU_i in the following explanation.

[0145] According to the power consumption reduction method of the present invention, when a power consumption reduction device (e.g., SMO, RIC, etc.) selects a specific DU, i.e., source_vDU_i, among each DU (vDU #1,...,#N) to be controlled (S10 success, or S15 success), randomly selects one Cell (hereinafter, candi_Cell_i) among each Cell of source_vDU_i (S20 success), and estimates the power consumption reduction (savings) of source_vDU_i when the selected candi_Cell_i is removed from source_vDU_i (S30).

[0146] That is, according to the power consumption reduction method of the present invention, the power consumption reduction device (e.g., SMO, RIC, etc.) can estimate the power consumption reduction of source_vDU_i (△power_Consumptionsource_vDU_i,candi_Cell_i) when the selected candi_Cell_i is removed from source_vDU_i through the estimation method using the aforementioned mathematical expressions 1 and 2.

[0147] Meanwhile, according to the power consumption reduction method of the present invention, the power consumption reduction device (e.g., SMO, RIC, etc.) selects an “other DU” belonging to a high-efficiency section in the DU power consumption correlation according to the resource usage rate among each DU (vDU #1,...,#N) to be controlled (S40).

[0148] Furthermore, according to the power consumption reduction method of the present invention, if it is impossible to select an “other DU” belonging to a high-efficiency section (S40 “no corresponding vDU”), the power consumption reduction device (e.g., SMO, RIC, etc.) can select one DU belonging to an intermediate-efficiency section as an “other DU” (S45).

[0149] The “other DU” selected in this way will be referred to as target_vDU_i in the following explanation.

[0150] According to the power consumption reduction method of the present invention, when a power consumption reduction device (e.g., SMO, RIC, etc.) selects another DU, i.e., target_vDU_i, among each DU (vDU #1,...,#N) of the control target (S40 success, or S45 success), if candi_Cell_i previously selected from source_vDU_i is placed / accepted in target_vDU_i, it estimates the increase in power consumption (increase degree) of target_vDU_i (S50).

[0151] That is, according to the power consumption reduction method of the present invention, the power consumption reduction device (e.g., SMO, RIC, etc.) can estimate the power consumption increase (△power_Consumptiontarget_vDU_i, candi_Cell_i) of target_vDU_i when candi_Cell_i previously selected from source_vDU_i is placed / accepted in target_vDU_i through the estimation method using the aforementioned mathematical expressions 3 and 4.

[0152] Accordingly, according to the power consumption reduction method of the present invention, if the power consumption reduction amount of the previously estimated source_vDU_i (△power_Consumptionsource_vDU_i,candi_Cell_i) is greater than the power consumption increase amount of the previously estimated target_vDU_i (△power_Consumptiontarget_vDU_i,candi_Cell_i) (S60 Yes), the power consumption reduction device (100, e.g., SMO, RIC, etc.) adds the difference value between the current candi_Cell_i, target_vDU_i, the estimated power consumption reduction amount of the source_vDU_i, and the power consumption increase amount of the target_vDU_i to the set of candidate cells for relocation of the current source_vDU_i (S70).

[0153] Here, the difference between the estimated power consumption reduction of source_vDU_i and the estimated power consumption increase of target_vDU_i will ultimately mean the "power gain of the total power consumption" for each DU (vDU #1,...,#N) of the estimated control target when candi_Cell_i is rearranged from source_vDU_i to target_vDU_i.

[0154] According to the power consumption reduction method of the present invention, the power consumption reduction device (e.g., SMO, RIC, etc.) performs the process of estimating the power consumption reduction of source_vDU_i when candi_Cell_i is removed from source_vDU_i through the aforementioned random selection of cells until there are no remaining cells to be randomly selected for source_vDU_i selected this time (S20 "No remaining cells"), estimating the power consumption increase of source_vDU_i when candi_Cell_i is placed / accepted in target_vDU_i, and adding the difference value of candi_Cell_i, target_vDU_i, to the set of candidate cells for relocation of source_vDU_i based on the difference.

[0155] In this way, the set of relocation candidate cells of source_vDU_i selected this time as a specific DU will collect information (candi_Cell_i, target_vDU_i, difference value) of cells among each cell of source_vDU_i whose difference value (power gain of the total power consumption) is a positive value.

[0156] According to the power consumption reduction method of the present invention, if there is no remaining cell to be arbitrarily selected for source_vDU_i selected as a specific DU (S20 "No remaining cell"), the power consumption reduction device (100, e.g., SMO, RIC, etc.) checks the set of rearrangement candidate cells of source_vDU_i (S80 "Existence"), selects one specific cell (candi_Cell_i) having the largest difference in power consumption reduction compared to power consumption increase, i.e., "power gain of total power consumption", as the final rearrangement target cell (S90), and determines to rearrange from source_vDU_i to target_vDU_i, and performs rearrangement (S100).

[0157] In this way, according to the power consumption reduction method of the present invention, the power consumption reduction device (e.g., SMO, RIC, etc.) can sequentially perform a rearrangement decision procedure in which one of the DUs (vDU #1,...,N) of the control target that belongs to the low-efficiency section is selected as a "specific DU (source_vDU_i)", and the specific Cell (candi_Cell_i) with the largest difference value, i.e., "power gain of the total power consumption", is rearranged from source_vDU_i to target_vDU_i.

[0158] As described above, according to the present invention, by utilizing virtualization-specific operations according to virtualization DU (vDU) technology, particularly cell resource pooling operations between DUs, a specific technical configuration capable of reducing power consumption of a virtualization DU (vDU) is realized by performing cell rearrangement in a direction in which the total power consumption of vDUs within a DU Pool can be minimized.

[0159] In particular, the present invention, taking into account that cell relocation may cause service impact, implements sequential relocation in which relocation is performed by specifying a cell and another DU (target_vDU_i) that will accommodate the cell for a specific DU (source_vDU_i) that is sequentially selected rather than relocating all cells at once, thereby realizing a cell relocation technique with low complexity without causing service impact.

[0160] In this way, according to the present invention, a new technology method embodied with low complexity is realized to reduce power consumption of a virtualized DU (vDU) by utilizing virtualization-specific operations according to the virtualized DU (vDU) technology.

[0161] Accordingly, according to the present invention, in introducing virtualized DU (vDU) technology, it is possible to achieve the effect of resolving the existing limitation of greater power consumption compared to non-virtualized DU without additional increase in complexity.

[0162] The method for reducing power consumption according to an embodiment of the present invention may be implemented in the form of program commands that can be executed through various computer means and recorded on a computer-readable medium. The computer-readable medium may include program commands, data files, data structures, etc., either singly or in combination. The program commands recorded on the medium may be those specifically designed and configured for the present invention or may be those known and usable by those skilled in the art of computer software. Examples of computer-readable recording media include magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks, and magnetic tapes; optical media such as CD-ROMs and DVDs; magneto-optical media such as floptical disks; and hardware devices specifically configured to store and execute program commands, such as ROMs, RAMs, and flash memories. Examples of program commands include not only machine language codes generated by a compiler, but also high-level language codes that can be executed by a computer using an interpreter, etc. The hardware devices described above may be configured to operate as one or more software modules to perform the operations of the present invention, and vice versa.

[0163] Although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to various embodiments, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and it will be understood that the technical idea of ​​the present invention extends to a range in which various modifications or changes can be made by anyone having ordinary skill in the art to which the present invention pertains without departing from the gist of the present invention as claimed in the following claims.

Claims

1. In a power consumption reduction device for a distributed unit (DU), memory containing instructions; and A power consumption reduction device characterized by including a processor that determines the cell arrangement of each DU so that the total power consumption of each DU of the control target is minimized based on the cell resource pooling operation between DUs by executing the above command.

2. In paragraph 1, The above processor, Based on the collected information for each DU of the above control target, the correlation between DU power consumption according to resource usage rate and resource usage rate according to the load of the receiving cell are defined. A power consumption reduction device characterized in that the cell arrangement of each DU is determined using the correlation defined above.

3. In paragraph 2, The above collected information is: A power consumption reduction device characterized by information indicating at least one of the resource usage rate of the DU, power consumption, number of cells accommodated, load per cell, and allocated resource per cell.

4. In paragraph 1, The above processor, Among the DUs of the above control target, a specific DU for power consumption reduction is selected, A power consumption reduction device characterized in that a specific cell having the largest power gain of the estimated total power consumption when placed in another DU among each cell of the specific DU is relocated from the specific DU to the other DU.

5. In paragraph 4, The above specific DU is, A power consumption reduction device characterized in that, among each DU of the above control target, a DU is sequentially selected from a DU belonging to the low efficiency section to a DU belonging to the medium efficiency section among the low efficiency / medium efficiency / high efficiency sections, which are distinguished based on the increase in power consumption compared to the increase in resource usage rate in the DU power consumption correlation according to the predefined resource usage rate.

6. In paragraph 5, The other DU above is, A power consumption reduction device characterized in that, each time the specific DU is selected, a DU belonging to the high-efficiency section among each DU of the control target is selected, or if selection of a DU belonging to the high-efficiency section is impossible, a DU belonging to the medium-efficiency section is selected.

7. In paragraph 4, The above processor, Using the correlation defined above, when each cell of a specific DU among each DU of the control target is placed in another DU, the power consumption reduction of the specific DU and the power consumption increase of the other DU are estimated, and the power gain of the total power consumption is estimated as the difference value. A power consumption reduction device characterized in that, among each cell of the specific DU, a specific cell having the largest power gain of the total power consumption estimated by the difference value for each cell is relocated from the specific DU to the other DU.

8. In the method for reducing power consumption for a distributed unit (DU), A step for defining a correlation to be used for cell placement of each DU of the control target; An operating method of a power consumption reduction device, characterized in that it comprises a step of determining the cell arrangement of each DU so that the total power consumption of each DU of the control target is minimized based on the cell resource pooling operation between the DUs using the above-defined correlation.

9. In paragraph 8, The steps defined above are: An operating method of a power consumption reduction device, characterized in that the correlation between DU power consumption according to resource usage rate and resource usage rate according to load of a receiving cell are defined based on collected information for each DU of the above control target.

10. In paragraph 8, The step of determining the above cell arrangement is: Among the DUs of the above control target, a specific DU for power consumption reduction is selected, A power consumption reduction method characterized in that a specific cell having the largest power gain of the estimated total power consumption when placed in another DU among each cell of the specific DU is relocated from the specific DU to the other DU.

11. In paragraph 10, The above specific DU is, A method for reducing power consumption, characterized in that among each DU of the above control target, the DU is sequentially selected from among the low-efficiency / medium-efficiency / high-efficiency sections, which are distinguished based on the increase in power consumption compared to the increase in resource usage rate in the DU power consumption correlation according to the predefined resource usage rate, starting from the DU belonging to the low-efficiency section to the DU belonging to the medium-efficiency section.

12. In paragraph 11, The other DU above is, A method for reducing power consumption, characterized in that, each time the specific DU is selected, a DU belonging to the high-efficiency section among each DU of the control target is selected, or, if selection of a DU belonging to the high-efficiency section is impossible, a DU belonging to the medium-efficiency section is selected.

13. In paragraph 10, The step of determining the above cell arrangement is: Using the correlation defined above, when each cell of a specific DU among each DU of the control target is placed in another DU, the power consumption reduction of the specific DU and the power consumption increase of the other DU are estimated, and the power gain of the total power consumption is estimated as the difference value. A power consumption reduction method characterized in that, among each cell of the specific DU, a specific cell having the largest power gain of the total power consumption estimated by the difference value for each cell is relocated from the specific DU to the other DU.

14. A computer program stored in a medium for executing a step of determining the cell arrangement of each DU so that the total power consumption of each DU to be controlled is minimized based on the cell resource pooling operation between the DUs, in combination with hardware that controls the Distributed Unit (DU).

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