Telecom network vendor Alcatel-Lucent has unveiled a new application G.W.A.T.T. — Global What if Analyzer of NeTwork Energy ConsumpTion app — that forecasts trends in energy consumption and efficiency based on traffic growth scenarios and technology evolution.
Bell Labs, the research arm of Alcatel-Lucent, has developed the application. Global telecom network operators will benefit as they can reduce energy consumption, costs and carbon footprint of their networks.
Alcatel-Lucent said G.W.A.T.T. provides a view of the entire network, showing how much power is consumed at each point in the network. G.W.A.T.T. can quickly identify hot spots’in a network where the most energy is consumed, and also provides a way to identify how different technologies can make the network more efficient.
Daily Internet traffic will increase up to 85 times by 2017 compared to 2010. By 2017 more than 5 trillion gigabytes of data will pass through the network every year. G.W.A.T.T. provides a roadmap of how to support this growth in a sustainable and economically viable way.
Energy consumption models and scenarios used to build G.W.A.T.T. are based on forecasts and network modeling from Bell Labs, as well as Alcatel-Lucent’s CTO organization and independent consortia including GreenTouch and the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI).
Alcatel-Lucent will expand the capabilities of G.W.A.T.T., refining its modeling capabilities, adding new scenarios and technologies, and including new technologies and architectures currently being investigated by Bell Labs and the GreenTouch consortium.
Marcus Weldon, corporate chief technology officer (CTO) of Alcatel-Lucent and Bell Labs President said: “G.W.A.T.T. is intended to guide future product and architecture evolution by allowing network operators and ICT architects and engineers to have a complete view of the energy impact of the decisions. It also can clearly explain which technology investments can have the biggest impact on energy consumption.”