Internet is Becoming Green!

A Solution to Use Internet Saving 50% of the Energy

Internet is a high energy demanding tool with a big carbon footprint. It is estimated a global consumption of about 868 billion kWh of electricity per year to run internet and all associated infrastructures.

An international staff of researchers of the Photonics and Networking Rsearch Laboratory (PNRL) of the Stanford University, USA, studied new protocols for increasing the energy efficiency of the Passive Optical Networks (PON), which are the devices that provide access to internet data and speed in transmitting and receiving them.
The researchers projected a sleep mode control system for Optical Network Units (the PONs on the users’ end) to interrupt the connection in condition of no data transfer, thus saving 50% of the energy.

The scientific paper describing the project won the Best Paper Award at the 2nd IEEE International Workshop on Green Communications during Globecom 2009, the most important event worldwide concerning communications technology.

Luca Valcarenghi, an Italian researcher from the Centre of Excellence for Information, Communication and Perception Engineering (CEIICP) of the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in Pisa, Italy, contributed in this PNRL research project.

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