Sustainable CellulAr networks harVEstiNG ambient Energy

Project Information

SCAVENGE

Grant agreement ID: 675891

DOI

10.3030/675891

Project closed

EC signature date 11 February 2016

Start date 1 February 2016

End date 31 January 2021

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 3 653 723,88

EU contribution

€ 3 653 723,88

Coordinated by

CENTRE TECNOLOGIC DE TELECOMUNICACIONS DE CATALUNYA
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - SCAVENGE (Sustainable CellulAr networks harVEstiNG ambient Energy)

Reporting period: 2018-02-01 to 2021-01-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The fifth generation 5G of mobile technology will support 1,000 times more capacity per unit area than 4G, for more than 100 billion devices with typical user rates of 10 Gb/s, and significantly lower latency and higher reliability. The higher capacity demanding human-centric communications will be complemented by an enormous increase in the number of communicating machines, the so called Internet of Things (IoT). 5G will enable the co-existence of multiple types of access technologies, multiple types of devices and applications, and a much higher connectivity density through an ultra-dense network of heterogeneous base stations (BSs).
However, this enormous growth in the number of devices and access points will also lead to an equally large growth in the carbon footprint of the information and communication technologies (ICTs). According to a recent report by Digital Power Group, the world’s ICT ecosystem already consumes about 1500 TWh of electric energy annually, approaching 10% of the world electricity generation. Consequently, major industry players have already put environmental sustainability in their roadmap to 5G. Furthermore, connecting this dense network of BSs to the energy grid, and regularly recharging drained end device batteries is physically impractical, if not impossible.
Sustainable design of cellular networks is therefore a key growth sector for societal prosperity and will require significant numbers of highly skilled researchers.
A promising solution to restrain the negative impact of the ICT sector on the environment and reduce the energy costs, while providing the 5G network with the much-needed autonomy from the energy grid, is harvesting the available ambient energy.
The SCAVENGE project proposes a sustainable paradigm for 5G mobile networks, where base stations and connected end devices are powered with local energy resources, e.g. solar and/or wind energy.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The work carried out in this second reporting period has finalized the scientific and training program as planned in the Annex 1 of the GA.

We have organized six training events in total. Each of these schools have been organized at a different partner institution, allowing ESRs to experience the research and educational environment at different countries and institutions. In each of these schools, we have balanced theoretical training to increase research capabilities of ESRs, with complementary skills training and social activities to create a collaborative environment among ESRs.

A data challenge has been organized by our ESRs, under the supervision of the senior researchers of the consortium.

From a scientific perspective, 84 technical papers have been accepted for publication in peer-reviewed scientific journals and in proceedings of peer-reviewed international conferences. Two of our students have received the Best Paper Award in two major conferences such as IEEE Globecom and IEEE WCNC.

SCAVENGE participated a huge number of dissemination events:
- 5 PhD schools plus an open workshop at IEEE SOFTCOM 2019
- 2 special sessions at IEEE PIMRC 2018 and IEEE ICASSP 2020
- 2 workshops at IEEE WCNC 2018 and IEEE SECON 2019
- 2 open ESRs’ workshop co-located with supervisory board meetings
- participation in the EU Green Week and in ‘Semana de la Ciencia’
- talks to master students at UPC MASTEAM,
- seminars in PhD schools of external universities.

Moreover, the SCAVENGE consortium has collaborated with other EU initiatives and projects (InRelNPower project, WindMill ITN and ONFIRE ITN).

SCAVENGE has also paved the way for new research fields in the area of sustainable networking. In particular, we have shown the importance of machine learning tools to manage efficiently sustainable energy within a mobile network. However, those tools have an energy cost, which is still unexplored in the scientific literature. For this reason, most of the partner of the SCAVENGE consortium have strengthen their collaboration and participated in the new EU-MSCA GREENEDGE.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

SCAVENGE has three original aspects that differentiate it from the current state-of-the-art research and existing doctoral programs.

- SCAVENGE addresses all aspects of sustainable design for the operation of 5G systems. Our proposed architecture optimization includes the radio access and the core network, user terminals, sensors and communicating machines. Furthermore, a feasibility study for the integration of the proposed sustainable 5G network functionalities into smart micro-grids will be carried out. In addition, the integration of energy harvesting technologies into the 5G networks will be fostered in our ESRs’ individual projects.

- The key challenge in designing and managing a communication system with energy harvesting capabilities is the unpredictable and intermittent nature of the energy that the renewables provide, which goes beyond the scope of typical “green communications” research and projects. Remarkably, the 5G networks that are addressed in SCAVENGE differ in terms of communication technology, usage models, power consumption and requirements.

- SCAVENGE contributed to the Horizon 2020 EU Energy Challenge. SCAVENGE will contribute to Competitive Low-carbon Energy area, by introducing metrics and methodologies to measure the energy efficiency and environmental footprint of ICT and energy management techniques to reduce its footprint. Moreover, SCAVENGE will also investigate on the integration of the EH cellular network into the smart electricity grid.

Our ESRs have been trained in a cross-disciplinary field of knowledge including communication networks, information theory, computer science, and energy generation, storage and efficiency. The ESRs have been working in a multi-cultural environment, thus building the base to enable their future transnational research and to exploit synergies between the international partners of the consortium.
Through the individual projects, the ESRs’ secondments, the organization of multiple training events and the regular conference calls for the scientific work packages, the Action has also provided the opportunity to the partners to discuss and implement joint research agendas and consolidate the collaboration in the research on sustainable design for ICT.

Our schools have been open to external audience and now freely available in our YouTube channel. Hence, our program provides useful means for education even beyond the specific scope of training our ESRs and covers key challenges for the future prosperity of our society such as sustainable development.
Moreover, the cross-disciplinary SCAVENGE training program gave the possibility to the teachers to prepare new material for a future inclusion in Master and PhD programs, which currently have scarce or negligible information on sustainable design for ICT.

HWFI intends to invest on the wake-up receiver proposal investigated by ESR14 and submitted 3 patent applications.
SCAVENGE had also a key impact for our two SMEs. They have created hybrid professional profiles into their departments and gained knowledge on energy efficient applied to communication systems, which inspired their employees to take over these challenges in new use cases and products.

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