TECHNOLOGY TRENDS


GREEN GAUGES G R EEN NETWOR K TECHNOLOGIES


Europe’s network operators are huge consumers of energy, but they could be part of the climate change solution as they adopt new technologies. By Roy Rubenstein


forecast huge growth in network traffic. Their actions promise to reduce opera- tional costs and control their carbon emissions, but improving network energy efficiency will also prove to be a business opportunity as operators help other industries become more energy efficient. “We can reduce emissions in other


S


sectors by five or six times what we emit in our own sector,” says Keith Dickerson, chair of the working party on ICT and climate change at the ITU. ICT generates 2% of the world’s carbon


emissions, says Dickerson, whose ITU working party is tasked with producing standards and best practices. “The trouble is that traffic levels are doubling every two years and the energy consumption of data centres is doubling every five years,” he says. “If we don’t watch out we will be seen to be part of the problem.”


Mobile industry direct emissions 2009 Device


embedded 12%


Device


consumption 4%


Network embedded 13%


consumption 71%


Source: GSMA/The Climate Group Network


ervice providers have set themselves ambitious targets to cut their energy consumption despite the


Indeed, some telecoms incumbents


already are responsible for as much as 1% of their home countries’ total electricity consumption. IDC has calculated that Europe’s wider ICT industry consumes some 8% of EU energy. Operators have long acknowledged the


issue of power consumption in their networks, but the topic has become particularly pressing for them in recent years due to electricity price rises. “We are getting dedicated and allocated funds specifically for energy efficiency,” says John Schinter, AT&T’s director of energy. “In the past, energy didn’t play anywhere near the role it does today.” KPN consumes 1% of all electricity in


the Netherlands, and that has considera- ble financial implications for the operator. “It is becoming a significant part of our opex cost,” says Marga Blom, manager of the energy management group at KPN. The operator previously had numerous electricity providers, but after changes in the energy market moved to a single supplier and was better able to quantify its monthly bill. “If what you are consum- ing becomes visible, you can start reducing it,” she says. Gerlinde Bedö, business development


manager for optical networks at Nokia Siemens Networks, says that for incum- bent operators power typically accounts for 40% of opex. Now operators are looking for ways to reduce power needs, including the development of next-gener- ation network architectures. BT’s 21CN,


2002 n Mobile 66 MtCO2e n Fixed narrowband 64 MtCO2e n Telecoms devices 18 MtCO2e n Fixed broadband 4 MtCO2e


Global telecoms CO2 emissions, devices & infrastructure, 2002 vs 2020 3%


12% 43% 42% 15% 51% 20% 14%


2020 n Mobile 179 MtCO2e n Fixed narrowband 70 MtCO2e n Telecoms devices 51 MtCO2e n Fixed broadband 49 MtCO2e


Source: The Climate Group/GeSI 12


for example, is significantly reducing the number of switching centres it operates while consolidating its various networks to IP; Deutsche Telekom has a similar programme to cull switching centre numbers; and Huawei estimates that deploying a new “green” network can reduce energy consumption by 35% compared to existing networks. According to the GSMA the mobile


industry forecasts it will reduce its total global greenhouse gas emissions per connection by 40% by 2020 compared to 2009. The forecast covers all emissions from energy sources under operators’ control, including radio networks, build- ings and transport. The GSMA says despite mobile connections rising to 8 billion by 2020, total emissions will remain constant at 245 mega-tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (Mt CO2e); that is equivalent to 0.5% of total global emissions in 2020 (see chart top left). Deploying the latest platforms can help


mobile and fixed-line operators to reduce power consumption. Verizon, for example, has deployed 100-Gigabit-per- second (Gbps) technology for optical transport and for its IT systems in Europe. The 100-Gbps systems are no larger than its 10- and 40-Gbps platforms, and while the interfaces may consume more power, power-per-bit is reduced. “But demand for ever increasing bandwidth and all its knock-ons—the need for more comput- ing and more storage—means the net effect is that there may be an increase in overall demand,” says Chris Kimm, Verizon’s vice president, network field operations, EMEA and Asia-Pacific. Operators are also under competitive


pressure to modernise their services and the equipment that enables them. “That means you are looking for opportunities to decommission not necessarily whole services but the inefficient elements within the network environment to make more room for the efficient ones,” says Kimm. France Telecom is consolidating its


www.totaltele.com March 2011


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