BT Group’s energy saving ‘cell sleep’ technology installed nationwide

The ‘cell sleep’ technology can put certain 4G LTE capacity carriers to sleep when the capacity is not needed, using machine learning to predict periods of low traffic for each site.

BT said the system then automatically wakes up during busy periods, and is also configured to react to unexpected surges which might occur during scheduled sleep modes – in which event, the carriers wake up within seconds to serve demand without any interruption to customers.

An even lower power state, ‘deep sleep’, can also be activated if required, for example during overnight periods of extremely low demand.

Both the ‘cell sleep’ and ‘deep sleep’ functionality is provided by the respective RAN equipment supplier on each of EE’s sites. BT Group’s site data is used to inform the statistical algorithms which then autonomously inform the functionality.

In a statement, Greg McCall, chief networks officer, BT Group, said: “There is huge potential for energy savings across our networks by dynamically matching power consumption against network usage.