Green Society and Information and Communications Technologies: Comparative Analysis, Applications and Markets

The environmental impact of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) under the banner of “Green ICT” has started being discussed by academia, media, industry and government. Currently, 3 %4% of the worldwide energy is consumed by the ICT infrastructure (approximately, 1.5%2% by wireless), which causes about 2 % of the worldwide CO2 emissions (which is comparable to the worldwide CO2 emissions by airplanes or one quarter of the worldwide CO2 emissions by cars). If this energy consumption is doubled every five years, serious problems may arise. Therefore, lowering energy consumption of ICT systems is demanding greater attention for many companies, the electricity expense from powering ICT systems is greater than that of the actual hardware over the equipment’s useful life. The industry already takes this issue seriously. For example, the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions has published three standards used to determine telecommunication equipment’s energy efficiency. The standards introduce the Telecommunications Energy Efficiency Ratio, or “TEER,” as a measure of networkelement efficiency. The standards provide a comprehensive methodology for measuring and reporting energy consumption, and uniformly quantify a network component’s ratio of “work performed” to energy consumed. This report concentrates on recent advances in the development of power consumption conscious ICT, including: The IEEE 2030 standard The IEEE 802.3az standard ZigBee/IEEE 802.15.4 technology UWB technology Bluetooth technology The IEEE 802.11 standards. The analysis of selected technologies, their specifics, markets and applications as well as the status of the industry is included. The report also analyzes the status of selfpowered techniques for WICT together with their applications, market and vendors’ activity.

Additional Information

Research Methodology

Considerable research was done using the Internet. Information from various Web sites was studied and analyzed. Evaluation of publicly available marketing and technical publications was conducted. Telephone conversations and interviews were held with industry analysts, technical experts and executives. In addition to these interviews and primary research, secondary sources were used to develop a more complete mosaic of the market landscape, including industry and trade publications, conferences and seminars.

The overriding objective throughout the work has been to provide valid and relevant information. This has led to a continual review and update of the information content.

Target Audience

This report is important to a wide population of researches, technical and sales staff involved in the developing of “green” ICT services and products. It is recommended for both service providers and vendors that are working with related technologies. The report also helps to understand issues associated with relationship between “green” ICT and other technologies.