ATIS Addresses Energy Conservation in Telecom

July 24, 2007, Washington, DC ─ ATIS announced today that its Network Interface, Power, and Protection Committee (NIPP ) has launched a landmark project to examine energy efficiency and the operation of telecommunications equipment. An ad hoc group established by the ATIS NIPP Committee – called the NIPP Energy Reporting Metrics (ERM) Ad Hoc Committee – is expected to develop metrics for purposes of comparing product energy utilization for equipment purchase and network planning decisions.

“The NIPP ERM project will produce a suite of documents that assess the energy needs of telecom equipment during operation,” said ERM Ad Hoc Committee Chair Mahmoud Elkenaney, Area Manager, AT&T Common Systems Standards. “ATIS member companies participating in the ERM offer the technical knowledge to make recommendations that ensure energy-saving features and efficiency targets become a common feature in telecom equipment and that consumers become more aware of the energy use implications of these technologies.”

The ERM Ad Hoc committee plans to address the following areas:

• Standardizing energy reporting metrics starting with simple normalization factors. The advantage of normalizing by functionality is that it enables like-to-like comparisons of equipment, thus creating metrics that are suitable for technical purchasing requirements. One area that will be examined is energy use as a function of traffic. This metric will relate to voice, data and streaming video traffic from fixed of mobile endpoints, as well as security features and encrypting. Later refinements may follow, resulting in a suite of more comprehensive metrics. Ideally such metrics can be used to calculate operational expense differences when architecting a new network. The initial output of the project, including having a first draft of standards completed and ready for comment, is scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2008.
• Cooling requirements. Despite years of efficiency improvements, telecom equipment is quickly reaching the maximum heat density that can be cooled with air. Higher density and more efficient cooling techniques will be explored (i.e. liquid cooling and higher air density cooling).
• Suitability of a product for use with renewable energy sources. As a technology that only uses electricity, telecom equipment is perfectly adaptable to solar, wind and biofuel sources. However, much work is needed to optimize the interfaces and operating modes for use of renewable energy.
• Improvements in environmental footprint through life cycle assessments. The earth’s resources used in manufacturing, use, and disposal/recycling can be factored into a measure of productivity. Life cycle evaluation is particularly important for network infrastructure equipment that is used 20 years or more. At present there are no standard methodologies or formats for these calculations.
• Site efficiency also will be addressed in the total scope of this project.

About the ATIS NIPP Committee

The activities of the ATIS Network Interface, Power, and Protection Committee (NIPP) include, but are not limited to, developing standards and technical reports covering the following areas: network interfaces, power, electrical protection, and physical protection. The NIPP ERM ad hoc group is part of the NIPP Network Power Systems (NPS) Subcommittee which develops standards and technical reports relating to power systems and power systems interfaces with telecommunications load equipment. For more on the committee, visit http://www.atis.org/0050/index.asp ATIS standards are available in the ATIS Document Center at https://www.atis.org/docstore/default.aspx.

ATIS is a leading standards development and technical planning organization committed to rapidly developing and promoting technical and operations standards for the communications and related information technologies industry worldwide using a pragmatic, flexible and open approach. Participants from more than 300 communications companies are active in ATIS’ 22 industry committees, Incubator Solutions Programs, and other activities. www.atis.org