Networks, the Internet, and climate change

1. Networks, the Internet, and climate change ICT networks assisting green initiatives

2. Climate change My starting point • Human activities are largely responsible for the rise in GHG • Very significant climate change is happening • The climate change will have large negative effects on human life

4. Rapid Increase in the Greenhouse Gas CO2Since Industrial Era Began Source: David JC MacKay, Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air (2009) 388 ppm in 2010 Medieval Warm Period Little Ice Age 290 ppm in 1900

5. Arctic Summer Ice MeltingAccelerating Relative to IPCC 2007 Predictions Source: www.copenhagendiagnosis.org

6. ICT in general . . . .

7. ICT – part of the problem • It has been estimated† that ICT contributes a similar amount of CO2 emissions to that from the entire aviation industry – 2% in 2007 with a projection of rising to 3% by 2020 • A server rack currently consumes up to 30KW and the rack density is still rising • Around half of the power requirements in today’s data centres is used for cooling • Gartner says more than 30% of ICT energy use is generated by PCs and associated peripherals † Gartner report April 2007

8. Data centres are big users of electricity NSA plan to build the data center, which could consume as much power as all the homes in Salt Lake City.

9. Data centres are big users of electricity… In the UK the Met data center used for climate modeling and weather forecasting is the singe biggest CO2 emitter in the UK.

10. ISPs target cloud services for growth Mid-sized ISPs address cloud opportunity with virtualisation investment By Rob O'Neill, Auckland | Wednesday, 10 February, 2010 …Iconz to invest in 250 racks of capacity at its Airedale St, Auckland premises… The new Iconz data centre will consume as much power as 15,000 homes.

11. … how secure is Auckland’s power supply?

12. Lowering the carbon footprint of ICT • Virtualisation • Greatly lowers server numbers • Thin servers • Lower power (and cooling requirements) • Low power PCs through improved design e.g. intelligent sleeping • Smart cooling of computers • Strategic location of data centres • Close to (non-fossil fuel) power sources • Sited to lower cooling energy use • Cloud computing • Efficient use of resources ….. in a typical data centre up to 30% of servers are not in use at all, but they are powered up

13. ICT services as part of the solution – enabling energy efficiencies • Travel substitution • Video and audio conferencing • Teleworking • Smart grids • Smart devices communicating with smart grids • Smart logistics • Improved scheduling • The management of the flow of goods • RFID tracking • Smart buildings It has been estimated that application of ICT can lead to a 5-fold greater decrease in green house gas emissions than its own carbon footprint – Smart 2020 Report

14. Implementation of smart grids • Low public knowledge • Current efforts benefit the supplier more than the customer • Is Government leadership the way forward? Not Internet related but involves networks

15. Specifically networks. . . .

16. The Carbon Footprint of Networks and the Internet • Networks themselves consume significant amounts of power…but the move from electrons to photons is lowering the impact. • Unnecessary duplication can be avoided through sharing base infrastructure. • Industry responses such as the Greentouch Initiative will assist in lowering network energy consumption. InternetNZ Action? Is there anything InternetNZ should/could do to support lowering network energy requirements?

17. Networks as part of the solution Some potential avenues for lowering the carbon load • Appropriate location of data centres • Travel substitution • Teleworking • Green Commerce e.g. Marry up the electricity and computer network industries. One possible reward system is to provide homeowners with free fiber to the home if they agree to pay a premium on their energy consumption which will in turn encourage them to reduce their energy use.

18. Many potential green initiatives are only possible with abundant cheap bandwidth The myth of scarcity of bandwidth survives and needs to be addressed

19. Transport cost per gigabyte

20. Location of Data Centres About 30% of NZ electricity is generated using non renewable resources and this proportion has increased in recent years – it is important to lower demand. • Close to electricity generation (through renewable resources) • Lower transmission losses • Location to facilitate natural cooling Must have very reliable networks Replacing electricity transmission lines with optical networks!

21. Perhaps the best location for data centres in New Zealand

23. Travel substitution • Video and audio conferencing has had a very long gestation period! • Telephone audio conferencing is now simple and just works – the telcos delivered! • Video conferencing has turned out to be more difficult to commodify

24. Video conferencing • ISDN – an old teleco model with very high pricing • One to one PC conferencing • Skype works • There are good HD capable models finally emerging • Mirial • EVO • Conference XP ….. but they still cause troubles even for techies • MCU bridges are getting there

25. Video conferencing . . . • Special room requirements – lighting and acoustics • Booking issues arise • Lack of effective standards for end use controls • Cost of transmission has continued to be a perceived problem • Telepresence – a long way to go • Optiportal technology – a specialist community initiative that works

26. How to make conferencing really work – what needs fixing? • Cost of transmission must become, and be seen to be, insignificant. • End user equipment and software must be simple to operate and robust • Desktop video conferencing is still seen as a bit of a black art – standards and simplification are necessary – shouldn’t require a techie • Off high-speed networks connections are poor – aDSL is not adequate because of the asymmetry. Encourage symmetric connectivity

27. Advanced Video Collaboration Centre The AVCC is a National non-profit centre dedicated to facilitating, enhancing and encouraging the use of video collaboration technologies across New Zealand's Universities and Crown Research Institutes. Is there an opportunity to make the AVCC services more widely available? InternetNZ action Support the AVCC to provide practical assistance to a wider audience for video conferencing?

28. Teleworking • Has not been widely adopted • Particular industries (e.g. journalism) are well represented • Problems of isolation regardless of communication facilities • Using telework centres, rather than the individual home, is seen as an answer for some • Are incentives needed to promote more teleworking? InternetNZ action Sponsor a workshop to explore promotion of teleworking?

29. Location of data centres • Why does the ICT industry locate data centres in major cities? – are there good reasons? • If not what can InternetNZ do to encourage more appropriate locations? InternetNZ action A publicity campaign?

30. Green Commerce opportunities Would it be appropriate for InternetNZ to investigate/promote green commerce mechanisms? InternetNZ action Research opportunities?

31. What might the InternetNZ organisation itself do? Lead by example – could InternetNZ reply on cloud computing for (some of) its services? – are there more opportunities to use of ‘virtual’ meetings? – are there teleworking possibilities?

32. General messages that need more emphasis • Low cost networking – continue to explode the myth that high speed communications are necessarily expensive. • Data networks should be more reliable than electricity networks