Jan 11 2010
The world took a big step closer today to a green and more sustainable communications future with the launch of Green TouchTM, a global consortium organized by Bell Labs whose goal is to create the technologies needed to make communications networks 1000 times more energy efficient than they are today.
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.
A video webcast is available of today's Green Touch announcement through the following link: www.greentouch.org
Green Touch™ brings together leaders in industry, academia and government labs to invent and deliver radical new approaches to energy efficiency that will be at the heart of sustainable networks in the decades to come. With its launch, the consortium also has issued an open invitation to all members of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) community to join forces in reaching this ambitious target.
"Over the next decade billions more people will upload and share video, images and information over public and private networks as we communicate with each other in new, rich ways. The corresponding increase in energy consumption necessary to support this demand will be exponential and requires immediate action to reduce emissions," said Gee Rittenhouse, vice president of research at Bell Labs and consortium lead. "If we apply all the power reduction technology known today we will at best keep overall network power consumption flat. This consortium is looking way beyond making incremental improvements in technology and will tap into innovation and expertise from around the globe to achieve the necessary breakthroughs in ICT carbon emissions reduction. What we are talking about is nothing less than reinventing the network as we know it."
Green Touch Initiative founding members include:
* Industrial Labs: Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs, Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT), Freescale Semiconductor
* Service Providers: China Mobile, Portugal Telecom, SwissCom, Telefonica
* Academic Research Labs: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) Research Laboratory for Electronics (RLE), Stanford University's Wireless Systems Lab (WSL), the University of Melbourne's Institute for a Broadband-Enabled Society (IBES)
* Government and Nonprofit Research Institutions: The CEA-LETI Applied Research Institute for Microelectronics (Grenoble, France), imec (Headquarters: Leuven, Belgium), The French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control (INRIA)
This 1000-fold efficiency target is based on research from Bell Labs that determined that today's information and communication technology (ICT) networks have the potential to be 10,000 times more efficient then they are today. This conclusion comes out of Bell Labs' fundamental analysis of the underlying components of ICT networks and technologies (optical, wireless, electronics, processing, routing, and architecture) and studying their physical limits by applying established formulas such as Shannon's Law [1].
"With the boom in broadband usage, ICT energy consumption is rapidly increasing and immediate steps need to be taken to address this trend and mitigate its impact," said Vernon Turner, Senior Vice President & General Manager for Enterprise Computing, Network, Consumer, Telecom and Sustainability at IDC, a leading industry analyst firm. "What distinguishes the Green Touch Initiative is its commitment to a hugely ambitious yet quantifiable goal that is rooted in hard science. Its global profile and multi-disciplinary approach will accelerate the necessary fundamental rethinking and development of new technologies."
To support its objectives the Green Touch Initiative will deliver -- within five years -- a reference network architecture and demonstrations of the key components required to realize this improvement. This initiative also offers the potential to generate new technologies and new areas of industry.
The first meeting of the consortium will take place in February and be dedicated to establishing the organization's five-year plan, first-year deliverables, and member roles and responsibilities.
For those companies interested in joining the consortium, please visit the web site: www.greentouch.org
Green Touch Member Profiles:
* Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs - leading global research organization and innovation engine of Alcatel-Lucent, trusted partner of service providers, enterprises and governments worldwide
* CEA-LETI - a leading global research centre committed to creating and commercializing Innovation in micro-and nanotechnology for telecommunications, healthcare, security, transportation and energy/environment applications
* China Mobile - leading mobile operator with the largest network and subscriber base in the world; China Mobile was recognized in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index in the past two years
* Freescale Semiconductor - a global leader in the design and manufacture of embedded semiconductors for the automotive, consumer, industrial and networking markets
* imec - performs world-leading research in nano-electronics. Imec leverages its scientific knowledge with the innovative power of its global partnerships in sustainable ICT, healthcare and energy. Imec delivers industry-relevant technology solutions
* The French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control (INRIA) - dedicated to fundamental and applied research in information and communication science and technology (ICST)
* The Research Laboratory for Electronics (RLE) at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - first of the Institute's great modern interdepartmental academic research centers and one of MIT's largest and most diverse research laboratories
* Portugal Telecom - Portugal Telecom ("PT") is a leading telecommunications provider with more than 68 million customers in 13 countries
* Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT) - SAIT, Samsung Group's central R&D organization was established in 1987 as the incubator for cutting-edge technologies. SAIT's research fields consist of future IT, new materials and device, bio, and energy
* Swisscom - Switzerland's leading telecoms provider, with 5,5 million mobile customers and around 1.8 million broadband connections
* The Wireless Systems Lab (WSL), Stanford University - investigates broad areas of wireless system design to meet these technical challenges associated with the development of next generation wireless communications infrastructure
* Telefonica - one of the world's largest telecommunications companies by market cap operating in 25 countries with a customer base exceeding 268.6 million globally
* The Institute for a Broadband-Enabled Society (IBES), University of Melbourne - a cross-disciplinary research institute dedicated to products, services, and innovations that maximize the benefit of new broadband technologies