Energy consumption is a significant concern for mobile network operators, and to enable further network energy improvements it is also an important target when developing the emerging 6G standard. In this paper we show that, despite the existence of many energy-saving features in 5G new radio (NR) networks, activating them in isolation yields only suboptimal savings and often compromises other network key performance indicators (KPIs) such as coverage or latency. We first introduce a compact taxonomy that distinguishes hardware capabilities from higher-layer features. Features fall into two classes: (i) signaling and scheduling mechanisms that create idle windows, and (ii) features that utilize those windows to save energy. We then present a feature orchestrator as a logical node to coordinate between features to maximize the gain. Using a 3GPP-aligned simulator with product-realistic parameters, we show that coordinating lean NR, scheduling, and advanced sleep modes significantly reduces gNodeB (gNB) energy consumption with negligible throughput loss, compared to the uncoordinated scenario. We conclude by outlining open issues in observability, system dynamics, coordination, and intelligent automation for energy performance management.

翻译：能源消耗是移动网络运营商关注的重要问题，也是新兴6G标准开发中推动网络能效进一步提升的关键目标。本文表明，尽管5G新空口（NR）网络中已存在多种节能特性，但孤立激活这些特性仅能获得次优的节能效果，且常会损害覆盖范围、时延等其他网络关键性能指标（KPI）。我们首先提出一个紧凑的分类体系，将硬件能力与高层特性区分开来。特性分为两类：（i）创建空闲窗口的信令与调度机制，以及（ii）利用这些窗口实现节能的特性。随后，我们提出一个特性编排器作为逻辑节点，用于协调各特性以最大化增益。基于符合3GPP标准的仿真平台，结合产品级真实参数，我们证明：相比非协调场景，协调精简NR、调度与高级休眠模式能显著降低gNodeB（gNB）能耗，同时吞吐量损失可忽略不计。最后，我们概述了能效性能管理中可观测性、系统动态、协调与智能自动化方面的未解决问题。