At Broadband World Forum, Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) demonstrated what it claims is the first adaptive power management technology for optical transport. The technology has the potential to save on energy use and carbon footprint, without affecting quality of service (QoS).
The Energy Aware Smart Packet Optical (SPO) 1400 demonstration showed how power management modes can be applied using traffic load measurement and prediction to slow or shut down unnecessary resources.
The idea is similar to the throttle that allows cars to change performance based on driver needs, adapting energy consumption to the work effectively done. Currently, telecom equipment always runs at full throttle, even though traffic levels vary over the course of the day and week.
In the demonstration an Energy Aware prototype SPO 1400 modulated energy consumption based on traffic requirements. It changed consumption based on actual use while maintaining network performance based on the bandwidth required.
This dynamic power management results in measurable energy savings, Ericsson says. For example, a small, regional network might require a minimum of 100 SPO nodes. Using energy-efficient dynamic nodes could potentially reduce yearly energy costs by €300,000 and result in carbon dioxide emission reductions equivalent to removing 7,000 cars from the road, the company asserts.
While the concept was demonstrated on optical transport equipment, the principle is applicable to many other products and can be implemented with other technologies, including microwave transport, Ericsson says.
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