Energy consumption of mobile data transfer – Increasing or decreasing? Evaluating the impact of technology development & user behavior

Abstract

Mobile data consumption in Finland is among the highest in the world. Increase in mobile data usage has been rapid and continuous growth is foreseen. While the energy consumed per transmitted gigabyte has substantially decreased, it seems that the absolute annual energy consumption related to mobile operators' activities has started to increase. Simultaneously, consumer behavior is changing. While new end-user devices are more and more energy-efficient, we use more and more time with mobile devices. Is increasing usage outweighing achieved energy savings? What kinds of options are available for tackling increasing energy demand? This paper discusses current and future trends related to energy consumption of mobile data transfer and mobile networks in Finland. Using a top-down approach and publicly available data, an illustrative trend (kWh/gigabyte) for the energy consumption of transmitted mobile data was constructed for the years 2010-2016. In addition, energy consumption related to mobile data transfer is discussed from a life cycle perspective, considering both direct and indirect energy use and challenges in conducting such assessments. Contributions of relevant technological and social developments (radio network technology transformations from 4G to 5G and consumer behavior) are analyzed considering possible trade-offs and pointing out aspects that require future studies.

Energy Harvesting from Water Flow by Using Piezoelectric Materials

“…An exponential decay in the power consumption can be observed in both devices. [ 137,138 ] A similar reduction of the power consumption should also occur in other devices, which can inspire water‐flow PEHs and other self‐powered systems.…”

“…[137] Copyright, 2021, Elsevier) and c) data transmission. [138] which included 93% of the harvesters as shown in Table 2. Figure 11 displays the P norm with publication years, in which an exponential increase in P norm can be observed with an annual growth rate of ≈70%.…”

“…In the previous discussion in Section 5.2, the power consumption of particular electronic devices has been significantly reduced due to the development of novel techniques, e.g., BLE and LoRa for data communication. A more general overview of how the power consumption of devices decreased with increasing year can be seen in Figure 10b,c, which displays the evolution of the power consumption of gas sensors [ 137 ] and long‐range data communication (included as a part of the production network), [ 138 ] respectively. An exponential decay in the power consumption can be observed in both devices.…”

“…Development of the power consumption of b) gas sensors (Reproduced with permission [137]. Copyright, 2021, Elsevier) and c) data transmission [138].…”