The French
telecommunications company, Alcatel-Lucent's research arm, Bell Labs'
announcement to start an innovative initiative-Green Touch-a global consortium
aimed at improving communications networks' energy efficiency has given the
global green drive a fresh new start. It targets to make communications networks
1,000 times more energy efficient than they are today.
Bell Labs did an analysis of the
fundamental properties of ICT networks and technologies, including optical,
wireless, electronics, processing, routing, and architecture, and studied their
physical limits by applying established formulas. The conclusion is that today's
ICT networks have the potential to be 10,000 times more efficient than they are
at present.
Gee Rittenhouse, vice president, research,
Bell Labs and consortium lead explained the need for joining hands at this
crucial time, when the climate change topic has caught the attention of world
leaders. He says, "Over the next decade billions of people will upload and share
videos, images, and information over public and private networks, as we
communicate with each other in new and rich ways. This will automatically lead
to an exponential growth in ICT energy consumption which we, as an industry,
have to jointly address." Rittenhouse adds that this consortium is unique in
looking beyond making incremental efficiency improvements and tapping the
innovations and expertise from around the globe to achieve fundamental
breakthroughs in ICT carbon emissions reduction.
The research firm, by bringing different
countries on to a single platform, wants them to understand the network usage
patterns which can become power savvy and cost-effective in the long run.
The consortium will put in efforts to
bring energy efficiency closer to the theoretical limits. It will not only
shrink the estimated 2% of the world's carbon emissions that ICT contributes
directly, but also lower the 98% contributed by all other sectors touched
directly and indirectly by ICT.
The agenda sounds responsible as it has
not only prioritized fiscal responsibility but a growing awareness of energy
efficiency. A thousand-fold reduction is roughly equivalent to being able to
power the world's communications networks, including the Internet, for three
years, using the same amount of energy that it currently takes to run them for a
single day.
Bell Labs in this initiative is supported
by service providers, academic research labs, government, non-profit
institutions, and industrial labs. The key SPs are AT&T, China Mobile, Portugal
Telecom, Swisscom, Telefonica. The research labs are The Massachusetts Institute
of Technology's (MIT) Research Laboratory for Electronics (RLE), Stanford
University's Wireless Systems Lab (WSL), and the University of Melbourne's
Institute for a Broadband Enabled Society (IBES). Samsung Advanced Institute of
Technology (SAIT), Freescale Semiconductor are the industrial labs that have
participated in this Green Touch initiative.
This initiative is welcomed by most of the
countries and research firms as eco-sustainability is influencing a major part
of the decision making process in technology related matters.
The consortium is aiming to have its first
meeting in February, 2010 to decide an action plan to achieve its goal and also
to decide the roles and responsibilities of its current members.
Ken Hansen, senior fellow, vice president
and CTO, Freescale Semiconductor says, "As the ICT network continues to grow, it
is incumbent upon the technical community to minimize their carbon footprint
through technologies that drastically reduce overall power consumption.
Freescale is delighted to join the Green Touch initiative which is focused at
achieving a 1000-fold decrease in power consumptions."
The program aligns with fundamental
principles of developing and delivering innovative technologies for the
networking industry.
The manifold increase in the information
and communication traffic will possibly make the global carbon footprint double
over the next ten years. Bell Labs believes that the approaches to reduce energy
consumption will finally fail to keep pace with the exponential usage pattern
that is on the rise. The research arm of ALU has taken inputs from the US,
Europe, China, Korea, so it may likely have meaningful results, as the member
states involved have been taken from commercial and research domains.
According to Wang Jianzhou, CEO, China
Mobile, "We leverage the strength of mobile communications services to benefit
the society, and help our customers and communities to reduce carbon emission.
China Mobile is committed to work jointly with the Green Touch consortium for
the green and low carbon future of ICT."
The end of last year might have seen a
face saving attempt at Copenhagen, but the Green Touch consortium seems to be
united in its green initiative as the companies behind it announced that they
will release annual reports on the project achievements.
Bell Labs has made some astounding
revelations. It stated that today's communications networks could be powered for
three years with the power they currently consume in a single day. The research
firm has set in fresh energy for the telecom industry which had been looking for
network and data optimization for quite a long time.
Professor Muriel Medard of the Research
Laboratory for Electronics (RLE), Massachusetts Institute of Technology says,
"As communications is an integral part of our infrastructure, attending to
energy needs is becoming a pressing concern."
Through a focused and collaborative cross
industry initiative, Green Touch intends to conduct breakthrough research, and
deliver innovative new technologies and sustainable solutions that can be
applied across ICT and beyond-for a greener future.
An 1000-fold improvement sounds like a big
number to achieve. Ed Miliband, UK secretary of state for energy and climate
change gave his backing for the project, and said that the ICT sector is
perfectly placed to use technological innovation to curb its carbon footprint.
He says, "The government welcomes industry
coming together with academia to create the research, technology, and solutions
necessary to reduce carbon emissions."
ICT can be the most powerful tool of the
time, as technologies can be optimized to give network efficient performance.
Therefore, the think-tank has come together to act on the issue that will have a
long term benefit. ICT solutions have the potential to reduce-by a factor of
five-the sector's own emissions. This is equivalent to 7,8 GTn CO2, or 15% of
the total world emissions predicted by 2020 (Smart 2020 Report, 2008). Vicente
San Miguel, CTO, Telefónica summarizes, "It is ICT's role and mission to realize
this potential and in the process raise the political discussion in order to
foster ICT development in a low carbon environment."
The Green Touch initiative is a great
opportunity to create an intelligent, sustainable plan to keep our world
connected. But Indian SPs are yet to gear up for it and allocate funds.
Archana Singh
archanasi@cybermedia.co.in
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