Prabhat Ranjan Mishra
Researchers are making efforts to create new antennas that offer the speed of 5G networks but use only ten percent of the energy than current systems.
At a time when 5G networks require more energy than previous generations and each base station consumes as much energy as 73 U.S. households, a high network that consumes much less energy could be a cost-effective and profitable solution for all.
Funded by the U.S. Army, researchers at the University of Notre Dame are making efforts to offer a solution with much less energy consumption as the rollout of 5G technology has come with a steep energy cost.
New low-power antenna
Researchers revealed that the new low-power antenna is a type of millimeter-wave gradient index (GRIN) lens antenna. Although GRIN lenses have existed for over a century, the idea of developing a GRIN lens antenna for 5G networks once seemed far-fetched to most researchers in the field of wireless technology.
“Right now, a large portion of the cost to operate a cellular network is for electricity. If you look at a cell tower, you can see why: It uses a different antenna for each band, and these rely on active, powered chips,” said Jonathan Chisum, an associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering.
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