Entropy-Based Energy Dissipation Analysis of Mobile Communication Systems

Compared with the energy efficiency of conventional mobile communication systems, the energy efficiency of fifth generation (5G) communication systems has been improved more than 30 times. However, the energy consumption of 5G communication systems is 3 times of the energy consumption of fourth generation (4G) communication systems when the wireless traffic is increased more than 100 times in the last decade. It is anticipated that the traffic of future sixth generation (6G) communication systems will keep an exponential growth in the next decade. It is a key issue how much space is left for improving of energy efficiency in mobile communication systems. To answer the question, an entropy-based energy dissipation model based on nonequilibrium thermodynamics is first proposed for mobile communication systems. Moreover, the theoretical minimal energy dissipation limits are derived for typical modulations in mobile communication systems. Simulation results show that the practical energy dissipation of information processing and information transmission is three and seven orders of magnitude away from the theoretical minimal energy dissipation limits in mobile communication systems, respectively. These results provide some guidelines for energy efficiency optimization in future mobile communication systems.