RAN Energy Efficiency Optimization (GB1526A): autonomy level assessment

RAN Energy Efficiency Optimization (GB1526A) is the TM Forum high value scenario that measures how far the energy saving of your radio access network runs without people, from setting the target to switching cells off and back on. Its level is assessed task by task through the five IAADE steps, and in June 2025 it became the first scenario with a Level 4 validated through ANLAV.

What this scenario covers

The scenario covers the daily work of reducing the energy used by the radio network without degrading the service. In operator terms, it spans:

• Setting the goal. An energy target for a cluster or a region, together with the guardrails that must hold: coverage, accessibility, throughput, latency.
• Knowing the situation. Energy consumption and traffic per site, cell and carrier, and the time windows when capacity is not needed.
• Choosing the actions. Which capacity layers, carriers or cells can be put to sleep, when, and for how long.
• Applying and reversing them. Switching resources off, waking them up when traffic returns, and rolling back when a guardrail is breached.
• Checking the outcome. Measuring the energy saved and the impact on customer experience, then adjusting the policies.

3GPP describes the measurement side of this work in TS 28.310, Management and orchestration; Energy efficiency of 5G: energy efficiency KPIs based on data volume and energy consumption, and energy saving management such as switching off capacity booster cells when traffic is low.

The level always applies to this scenario only. A network can be highly autonomous on energy saving and still largely manual on RAN fault management.

How ANN structures it

In ANN, the questionnaire for GB1526A is organised in tabs by sub-scenario, then by task. Each task is rated from L0 to L5 through the IAADE steps: Intent, Awareness, Analysis, Decision and Execution.

The table below shows the question each IAADE step asks for this scenario. It is an illustration written by CEVIA, not an extract from a TM Forum questionnaire.

When a reference standard is known for a task, it appears as a chip under the task name. A chip marked "CEVIA proposal" is a mapping suggested by CEVIA that does not come from a sourced annex. Chips never change the score.

Once the sub-scenarios are complete, the results screen shows the scenario score following IG1252, expressed as Lbase, Lextra and Lscenario, an IAADE radar and the gaps for each sub-scenario. A task without an answer stays "Not assessed" and is never counted as zero.

Evidence to prepare

For energy efficiency, evaluators look for both what the organisation says and what its systems did.

Declarative evidence describes how the work is meant to be done:

• the energy saving policy, with its targets and service guardrails
• the operating procedure for activating, suspending and reversing energy saving features
• the governance: who may change a policy, and who is alerted when a rollback happens

Technical evidence shows how the work was actually done:

• exports of the active energy saving policies from the OSS or SON system
• execution logs of switch-off and wake-up actions, with timestamps and triggers
• energy consumption measurements per site over a representative period
• KPI monitoring records showing the guardrails checked during energy saving windows, including any automatic rollback
• for predictive approaches, documentation of the traffic model and its prediction logs

In ANN, each piece of evidence is attached to a task once its level is chosen, typed as declarative or technical, and kept with its history. The Evidence guide tab lists examples by IAADE step for each available scenario. It is a preparation aid built by CEVIA from operator practice, not an official TM Forum nomenclature.

ANN also shows an evidence coverage indicator: technical evidence counts in full, declarative evidence alone counts half, and the default coverage threshold is 80 %. This weighting is a CEVIA method, not a TM Forum rule, and it does not change the maturity score.

What Level 4 looks like here

At Level 4, analysis and decision are performed by systems, not only execution. For energy efficiency, this means a system predicts traffic, decides which resources to put to sleep within the guardrails set by the intent, applies the change, watches the service KPIs and reverses its own action when needed. People set the intent and handle exceptions.

Public examples show what this looks like in a live network:

• On 19 June 2025, Ericsson and TDC NET announced the first verification of Level 4 autonomy through the TM Forum ANLAV service, on RAN Energy Efficiency Optimization. Ericsson describes an intent-guided solution that adapts to the traffic profiles of sites or clusters, in operation on the TDC NET network since May 2024.
• In November 2025, TelecomTV reported that True Corp in Thailand received a Level 4 validation under ANLAV for RAN energy-efficiency optimisation, alongside one for individual service assurance.

Neither operator is presented here as an ANN user.

Source of the questionnaire

Each scenario in ANN states where its questionnaire comes from: a real ANLAV report where one exists, or a reconstruction documented by CEVIA from published TM Forum questionnaires. A reconstructed scenario is never presented as an official TM Forum table.

GB1526A is one of the scenarios currently available in ANN, listed on the scenarios page. Related reading: IG1252 explained for how task ratings become a scenario level, how to prepare for ANLAV for what an auditor expects, and What is ANLET? for the questionnaire itself.