Aiming for 99.9% Cut in Telecoms Network Power Use by 2015

Bells Labs, where both the laser and the transistor were invented, has launched an international consortium of networking and computing firms called Green Touch, which is committed to developing new power-saving technologies. The initial goal is to cut power use in the global telecoms network by 99.9 per cent by 2015. The University of Melbourne’s Institute for a Broadband-Enabled Society (IBES) is a member of the Green Touch consortium.

By Paul Marks for New Scientist(12 January 2010):

The internet and other communications networks could use one-ten-thousandth of the energy that they do today if smarter data-coding techniques were used to move information around. That’s the conclusion of Bell Labs, the research centre in Murray Hill, New Jersey, where both the laser and transistor were invented.

The lab has launched a consortium of networking and computing firms called Green Touch that is committed to developing new power-saving technologies. The initial goal is to cut power use in the global telecoms network by 99.9 per cent by 2015.

At issue, says Gee Rittenhouse, head of research at Bell Labs, is the 300 million tonnes of carbon dioxide belched into the atmosphere to power today’s global telephone, internet and cellphone networks.

 ”That’s equivalent to the emissions from 50 million automobiles, or 20 per cent of the cars registered in the US,” he says. The explosion in internet traffic taking place as mobiles go online and video viewing grows, plus future changes such as the arrival of 3D TV, will push those emissions even higher.

Back to basics

One way Bell Labs plans to develop low-power networks is by harnessing the theories of its late alumnus Claude Shannon that underlie all electronic communication, wired or wireless.

Shannon worked out that in a low-power channel, where unwanted “noise” is loud compared with the intended signal, a code can always be devised to extract the messages being transmitted.

Today’s fibre-optic and cellphone networks avoid having to take that approach by using high power levels. “But by using smarter codes we can extract those signals and reconstruct them accurately even in the presence of high noise,” Rittenhouse says.

Other members of the Green Touch consortium include US mobile network AT&T, China Mobile – the world’s largest cellphone operator – European mobile operator Telefonica, hardware manufacturers Samsung and Freescale Semiconductor, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, California, the University of Melbourne, Australia and the French national computing lab INRIA.

Consolidated data

MIT engineer Muriel Médard says she will be looking for ways to bundle together internet data taking similar routes through the network to reduce the traffic on power-hungry trunk routes. “A lot of energy is dissipated in vain,” she says.

At the University of Melbourne, Rod Tucker will focus on the power consumed by broadband modems, phones and cellphones when not in use.

“If you have broadband your modem is probably switched on all the time, consuming a few watts,” he explains. “We’ll be looking at ways to make modems and phones go into a sleep mode when not in use – but from which they can wake up quickly.”

Samsung of South Korea is still firming up its ideas. “But memory and displays in communications systems are areas where we can particularly innovate,” says engineer Young Mo Kim.

It’s not just hardware that will be getting attention – changing user behaviour can also cut power use. For example, by making cellphone battery life indicators more accurate or power-saving settings easier to change, users could be encouraged to use their cellphone batteries more efficiently.

“The user aspects of communications energy-saving will be a clear focus,” says Bell Labs president Jeong Kim.

Source: www.newscientist.com

12 January 2010

The University of Melbourne’s Institute for a Broadband-Enabled Society (IBES) today announced its membership in a new research consortium – the Green Touch™ Initiative – which brings together leading Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry players and researchers to fundamentally re-invent the network and reduce ICT energy consumption up to a factor of 1000.

 A team of researchers in IBES is investigating ways to reduce the energy consumption of the internet.  Like researchers in a number of other organisations, IBES has made progress in understanding how network energy consumption can be reduced.

Finding a comprehensive solution to the problem of growing energy consumption in the Internet will require strong collaboration and cooperation between researchers from different backgrounds and from different organizations.

“The Green Touch Initiative provides us with the best opportunity to make real and significant progress on this key research challenge,” said Professor Rod Tucker, Director of the Institute for a Broadband-Enabled Society. 

“IBES is delighted to be part of the Green Touch Initiative, and stand with other members of the consortium on the threshold of a new era in information technology and telecommunications.   Outcomes from the Green Touch Initiative will be critical to the future of the entire industry.”

About the Institute for a Broadband-Enabled Society

The Institute for a Broadband-Enabled Society (IBES) is a cross-disciplinary research institute at the University of Melbourne dedicated to technologies products, services, and innovations that maximize the benefit of broadband technologies to society. The Institute’s activities cover a wide range of fields including advanced broadband technologies, energy-efficient networking and cloud computing, online engagement, content creation and delivery, delivery of remote health services and education, business and service transformation, social networking, and entertainment.

About the Green Touch Initiative

Green Touch Initiative, a consortium of leading industry players, research institutions and non-governmental organizations to define the challenge, identify solutions and develop solutions with the goal to deliver the architecture, specifications, roadmap, and demonstrations of key components needed to reduce ICT energy consumption per user by a factor of 1,000 from current levels within five years.

Source: www.greentouch.org and www.broadband.unimelb.edu.au