Espoo, Finland, 2015-09-11 08:00 CEST (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --
Efore Plc Press Release September 11, 2015 9.00 a.m
The Eureka research project Opera-Net – ‘Optimising Power Efficiency in Mobile Radio Networks’ – received the prestigious ‘Celtic-Plus Innovation Award’ in April 2015, as recognition for its high business impact during the four years after the project completion. The project was carried out during 2008 - 2011 and received in February 2012 the ‘Celtic Excellence Silver Award’ for excellent results.
The technology allowed for dramatic cost-cuttings in 2G and 3G networks. It was rolled out by the network operator Orange across most of Europe, Africa and the Middle East, to reach more than 140 million customers. In 2013, this represented a reduction in energy consumption of more than 35 GWh, corresponding to an OPEX reduction of about 5 million euros per year.
Nokia, Efore and VTT were part of the Opera-Net international R&D project consortium, including industrial, research and academia partners from Belgium, France, Ireland, UK, and Singapore. The project was managed by Orange, through its Orange Labs, in France. “The complementarity of Opera-Net’s partners, with skills going from power amplifier to the network operator, allowed achieving quickly exploitable results,” said Régis Esnault, Orange Labs Project Coordinator.
Nokia’s role in the project involved calculating and improving end-to-end efficiency of cellular networks. Portable user equipment, like mobile phones, have to be optimized for minimal energy consumption because of battery limitations. In addition, base stations handle the radio link with the user equipment and provide and manage all the connections between the users and data centres. Optimizing base station power consumption alone would easily result in overall suboptimal network performance. The project helped Nokia to develop the most energy efficient end-to-end solutions for cellular networks. Contact person: Hans-Otto Scheck, Senior Specialist, Standardization, hans-otto.scheck@nokia.com.
Efore focused on reducing the energy consumption and the cost of the Base Transceiver Station power systems, through improvements in the power distribution architecture and in power equipment efficiency. Alternatives to the traditional low voltage power distribution were investigated, such as AC- and higher voltage DC power distribution for Base Transceiver Stations. The project contributed to Efore’s technological competitiveness and provided valuable input for the development of new products. Contact person: Vlad Grigore, VP and CTO, vlad.grigore@efore.com.
VTT developed methods for analysing the average power amplifier efficiency of different combinations of power amplifier, signal model, and multi-antenna and power control methods. The work is based on mathematical analysis and simulations, and helped to find energy efficient communication concepts for power-adaptive system including, for example, LTE uplink or LTE-Advanced downlink. Contact person: Mika Lasanen, Senior Scientist, Programme Manager, mika.lasanen@vtt.fi.
Nokia, Efore, and VTT’s participation in Opera-Net project has been partially funded by Tekes – The Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation. More information about Celtic-Plus Innovation Award:
http://www.eurekanetwork.org/content/celtic-plus-innovation-award-goes-opera-net-project.
EFORE PLC
Heikki Viika
President and CEO
For further information, please contact Vlad Grigore, VP and CTO of Efore’s, tel. +358 9 4784 6422
DISTRIBUTION Finnish media
Efore Group is an international company which develops and produces demanding power products. The company has been established in 1975. Efore's head office is based in Finland and its production units are located in China and Tunisia. Sales and marketing operations are located in Europe, United States and China. In the fiscal year ending in December 2014, consolidated net sales totalled EUR 85,3 million and the Group's personnel averaged 914. The company's share is quoted on the Nasdaq OMX Helsinki Ltd. www.efore.com
About Nokia
By focusing on the human possibilities of technology, Nokia embraces the connected world to help people thrive. Our three businesses are leaders in their fields: Nokia Networks provides broadband infrastructure, software and services; HERE provides mapping, navigation and location intelligence; and Nokia Technologies provides advanced technology development and licensing.
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd is the leading research and technology company in the Nordic countries. We use our research and knowledge to provide expert services for our domestic and international customers and partners, and for both private and public sectors. We use 4,000,000 hours of brainpower a year to develop new technological solutions.