Using communications to reduce climate change impact

Next Generation Communications Blog

Using communications to reduce climate change impact

There is a growing trend in telecom towards developing more energy efficient and environmentally friendly equipment. Naturally, a key driver is the potential cost savings that businesses can achieve through the use of green IT, but, as Professor Donal O'Mahony, Head of the CTVR (The Centre for Telecommunications Value-Chain Research) at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, explains, a growing public concern regarding global warming and carbon dioxide emissions, combined with the rising cost of energy worldwide, has put environmental impact at the top of telecom research agendas. The CTVR is the
 
Companies like Alcatel-Lucent are taking that concern to heart, focusing much or their R&D efforts of reducing the carbon emissions of their equipment. For instance, Alcatel-Lucent has reduced emissions from its CDMA base stations by 40 percent, from its GSM base stations by 50 percent, and from its DSL access lines by 20 percent.
 
In addition to continuing research in thermal and power management, Alcatel-Lucent, through its Bell Labs facilities, is looking into what Sam Samuel, Head of Ireland and UK for Bell Labs, calls the topographical management of networks. In order to reduce cooling costs, many data centers are being built in remote colder climates, but, as Samuel explains, this requires routing of network-based assets from these data centers to users. Bell Labs is now looking at how to adapt to data centers being housed in these colder climates and effectively manage these networks from both a functional and an energy utilization perspective.
 
At the CTVR, which works closely with Alcatel-Lucent, among a number of eco-sustainability projects, research scientists from around the globe are looking into the reduction of energy consumption in optical networks. Traditionally, telecom network energy utilization is based upon their peak capacity - naturally, operators must plan for peak network utilization - but the fact is that much of the time, they are using very little of that capacity. To account for usage fluctuation, the CTVR is developing optical transceivers that are able to reduce their operational speed and, therefore, their power utilization, during lower network usage periods.
 
At its Bell Labs facilities, and through its work with the CTVR, Alcatel-Lucent is looking to drive R&D efforts that will bring such energy efficient technologies to the next generation communications environment, helping reduce the carbon emissions from telecom equipment, which now stands at about two percent of the global carbon emissions, but is set to grow significantly in the coming years without such efforts from Alcatel-Lucent and the CTVR.
 
To learn more about Alcatel-Lucent's R&D in green IT, check out this video in its Innovation at Work series. For specifics on how green IT can be deployed to reduce costs, read the white paper, Reducing Power Consumption: Improving the heat and power efficiency of switching and telephony equipment."


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