Bell Labs spearheads Green Touch initiative to improve network energy efficiency
By Chris Ziegler 
posted January 12th 2010 7:03PM
posted January 12th 2010 7:03PM
Normally we might not cover the formation of a new consortium with ridiculously lofty goals like this, but check it: Bell Labs has managed to corral a who's-who of carriers, universities, government agencies, and industry labs with the goal of making communications networks more energy efficient than they are today. What makes the goal so lofty, though, is the fact that Bell wants to improve efficiency by a whopping 1,000 times -- a number it says should be possible based on research it has done suggesting a 10,000-fold improvement is theoretically possible. Heavy-hitting members include China Mobile (the world's largest carrier), AT&T, Swisscom, Telefonica, MIT, Stanford, Freescale, and the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, so we're feeling good about the plausibility of Green Touch's first proposed milestone: a reference architecture and sample components within five years capable of meeting the 1,000-fold improvement mark. The group's first meeting is next month -- just be sure to drive your plug-in hybrids to the gathering, guys.
Should help a lot of people save a lot of energy. To me, I like it because it saves money. Being "green" is just a positive side effect.
@paul34
Being green isn't cheap... (well, when new technology is involved any way)
@credo Yeah, but in this kind of timeframe, companies will be putting in new networking technology anyhow. When you're purchasing a new one anyway, energy-efficient routers or whatever needn't really cost more than others.
Anyone else reminded of the BitTorrent logo?
If only such lofty targets were set in Copenhagen *sigh*
@laxlaxlax
F. Copenhagen.. when you start feeling peak oil by end of this decade everyone will start squeaking..
Go Green is the new mantra of the world after the Copenhagen gathering. But, this should not get restricted to few fully developed or developing countries that are quite powerful economically. But it should be represented by the entire UN member nations, so that it will become the project which benefits the whole mankind, and the economical interest is kept aside. - http://www.enaviya.com/
Wow, just think, wind and solar powered cell towers which are almost guaranteed to produce more power than they use!
Well, I blame 8 years of Bush Co. for stifling energy innovation with their constant meddling into matters of science to simply benefit their oil pals. F'em and good riddance... A Prez Jeb? NOT A CHANCE!!