INTelligent Energy awaRe NETworks (INTERNET)
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Leeds
Department Name: Electronic and Electrical Engineering
Abstract
Energy efficient processes are increasingly key priorities for ICT companies with attention being paid to both ecological and economic drivers. Although in some cases the use of ICT can be beneficial to the environment (for example by reducing journeys and introducing more efficient business processes), countries are becoming increasingly aware of the very large growth in energy consumption of telecommunications companies. For instance in 2007 BT consumed 0.7% of the UK's total electricity usage. In particular, the predicted future growth in the number of connected devices, and the internet bandwidth of an order of magnitude or two is not practical if it leads to a corresponding growth in energy consumption. Regulations may therefore come soon, particularly if Governments mandate moves towards carbon neutrality. Therefore the applicants believe that this proposal is of great importance in seeking to establish the current limits on ICT performance due to known environmental concerns and then develop new ICT techniques to provide enhanced performance. In particular they believe that substantial advances can be achieved through the innovative use of renewable sources and the development of new architectures, protocols, and algorithms operating on hardware which will itself allows significant reductions in energy consumption. This will represent a significant departure from accepted practices where ICT services are provided to meet the growing demand, without any regard for the energy consequences of relative location of supply and demand. In this project therefore, we propose innovatively to consider optimised dynamic placement of ICT services, taking account of varying energy costs at producer and consumer. Energy consumption in networks today is typically highly confined in switching and routing centres. Therefore in the project we will consider block transmission of data between centres chosen for optimum renewable energy supply as power transmission losses will often make the shipping of power to cities (data centres/switching nodes in cities) unattractive. Variable renewable sources such as solar and wind pose fresh challenges in ICT installations and network design, and hence this project will also look at innovative methods of flexible power consumption of block data routers to address this effect. We tackle the challenge along three axes: (i) We seek to design a new generation of ICT infrastructure architectures by addressing the optimisation problem of placing compute and communication resources between the producer and consumer, with the (time-varying) constraint of minimising energy costs. Here the architectures will leverage the new hardware becoming available to allow low energy operation. (ii) We seek to design new protocols and algorithms to enable communications systems to adapt their speed and power consumption according to both the user demand and energy availability. (iii) We build on recent advances in hardware which allow the block routing of data at greatly reduced energy levels over electronic techniques and determine hardware configurations (using on chip monitoring for the first time) to support these dynamic energy and communications needs. Here new network components will be developed, leveraging for example recent significant advances made on developing lower power routing hardware with routing power levels of approximately 1 mW/Gb/s for ns block switching times. In order to ensure success, different companies will engage their expertise: BT, Ericsson, Telecom New Zealand, Cisco and BBC will play a key role in supporting the development of the network architectures, provide experimental support and traffic traces, and aid standards development. Solarflare, Broadcom, Cisco and the BBC will support our protocol and intelligent traffic solutions. Avago, Broadcom and Oclaro will play a key role in the hardware development.
Planned Impact
We will aim to make impact through this research using new mechanisms as we as schemes that have been most successful in the past. 1. Current Strategy of Applicants in Engaging Users and Beneficiaries in Research The following existing strategies will be extended for use in the programme grant: 1.1 Economy: We will rely heavily on regular meetings with industry including: (i) focussed and just involving individual companies (ii) EU Networks of Excellence (iii) meetings to draw complementary companies together (sometimes via a roadmapping activity), (iv) standards meetings (we have close links into the Ethernet and IETF (for internet standards)) (v) showcase events where we insist on demonstrating (rather than just presenting) our work. We also are very committed to encouraging secondments. 1.2 Knowledge: In addition to transfer through publication, key examples of creating impact include our making available of our channel models on an open access basis to individuals and companies, our network traffic models now in use by Ericsson and Freescale, providing open source software such as xen and VNA. 1.3 People: In recent years we have sought to encourage our researchers to broaden their interests. One, for example, now takes a leading role in encouraging joint research (and related activities) between Cambridge University and overseas countries including China, Italy, Spain and Mexico, having brought senior policy leaders to the UK as a result. 1.4 Society: We have increasingly sought to influence policy, for example having contributed to consultations by the Photonics KTN, CST, the Royal Society, and the TSB. In the specific area of Energy Policy, at Leeds we are engaged with the Institute of Earth, Energy and the Environment addressing sustainability issues in society and at Cambridge we are involved in the Centre for Science and Policy. Of course one of our Co-Is (Prof MacKay) already advises the Department of Department of Energy and Climate Change on science and policy. Our public engagement is evidenced for example by Cambridge currently hosting the largest Science Festival in the UK. 2. Future Impact Plan of the INTERNET Programme Grant We will seek to continue the above strategies as they are proven to deliver impact. We will focus on maintaining and indeed growing links with our existing industrial collaborators as we believe that their markets will continue to grow. For example, Ethernet services are expected to grow substantially, with estimates of sales in the US alone being $27B over the next few years. In terms of our energy saving measures, in the UK BT's energy consumption is estimated at 3.468TWh/year in 2009, and we calculate that that a modest 20% energy saving through our methods will translate to an OPEX saving of about 69million per year for an operator. 2.1 New forms of Communications and Collaboration New additional activities to enhance the impact of our research would include: (i) organising special workshops to carry out research scenario/grand challenge setting and roadmapping. (ii) enhancing flexible industrial placements for researchers (iii) making use of KTP and small grant schemes such as those organised by the TSB. Training PhD students which is expected to generate long lasting impact. 2.2 Exploitation Routes This project will lead to exploitable concepts suitable for licensing, for example in energy efficient components, where we have an excellent track record in licensing to world leaders such as Avago with components already in production or in software. In other cases new spin-off companies will be set up to commercialise architectures, systems, software and protocols.
Publications
Ajibola O
(2019)
Disaggregation for Improved Efficiency in Fog Computing Era
Ajibola O
(2021)
Disaggregation for Energy Efficient Fog in Future 6G Networks
Ajibola O
(2020)
A Network Topology for Composable Infrastructures
Ajibola O
(2021)
Network Topologies for Composable Data Centers
in IEEE Access
Ajibola O
(2021)
Optical Networks for Composable Data Centers
Ajibola O
(2020)
A Network Topology for Composable Infrastructures
Ajibola O
(2021)
Network Topologies for Composable Data Centres
Description | Our Objectives were to develop energy efficient communication network architectures, protocols and hardware. Our key findings are: Architecture: Our energy efficient architecture designs influenced GreenTouch and were adopted in Green Meter I [1] and II [2]; they summarise the energy efficiency improvement methods developed by GreenTouch to achieve its very ambitious goal of demonstrating how communication network energy efficiency can be improved by a factor of 1000 in 2020 compared to 2010 baseline levels. Some of our key studies include architectures for (a) optimum use of renewable energy in core networks and optimum sleep mechanisms, (b) optimum energy efficient mixed line rates and optical OFDM networks, and (c) energy efficient network topology design. The studies in (a) to (c) contributed to Green Meter I [1] which achieved 64x energy efficiency improvement. We also introduced (d) green IP over WDM networks with data centres, (e) energy efficient video caching architectures (f) peer-to-peer energy efficient content distribution network architectures (g) distributed energy efficient clouds over core networks and (h) energy efficient joint network and data centre virtualisation. We investigated IP over WDM networks with renewable energy sources and proposed for the first time the optimum use of renewable energy in optical networks [3]. This led to the approval of two new GreenTouch projects: OPtimum End-to-end Resource Allocation (OPERA), and SwiTching And tRansmission (STAR); STAR was subsequently funded by EPSRC £356k, EP/K016873/1 in Leeds and £299k EP/K018116/1 in Cambridge under EU CHIST-ERA. We introduced energy efficient optical OFDM-based networks and developed a detailed model of the energy consumption in OFDM enabled core nodes [4]. We extended the work and optimised the energy use of core networks that employ mixed line rates [4]. The energy efficient mixed line rates developed were adopted by GreenTouch 50+ partners using GreenTouch GreenMeter I and II and published in GreenTouch White Papers in June 2013 and 2015 [1], [2]. The work [4] ranked number 1 (among highly accessed papers) in IET Optoelectronics July 2014 to September 2015 and was awarded the 2016 IET Optoelectronics Premium award. We optimised the physical topology of communication networks and provided the first analytic proof of the optimality of a full mesh and star topologies in energy efficiency terms under fully symmetric and fully asymmetric (one dominant node) traffic respectively [5]. We answered fundamental optimum data centre location questions analytically to reduce CO2 emissions [6]. The work led to a visiting fellowship invitation by BT, collaboration with the BBC to reduce the carbon footprint of BBC video services, and a fellowship at Bell Labs, Murray Hill in 2012. We explored the dynamics of TV viewing behaviour and program popularity and devised architectures to minimise energy usage [7]. The work was the result of collaboration with BT during T. El-Gorashi's BT visiting fellowship in 2012. It supported the collaboration with the BBC to reduce the carbon footprint of BBC video services, and led to invited talks including one at GreenTouch's IT workshop, and a resulting paper ranked in the top 50 accessed papers in the IEEE JLT journal. We proposed a number of energy efficient architectures to jointly minimise the energy consumption of content providers and core optical transport networks that deliver traffic generated by an overlay layer of BitTorrent based Peer-to-Peer users [8]. We performed a comprehensive study that proposes breaking up clouds / data centres and distributing them over the core optical network to jointly improve the overall network and data centre energy efficiency [9]. We introduced for the first time a comprehensive framework for the design of energy efficient joint network and data centre virtualisation [10]. The work was in the top 10 most downloaded papers published in IEEE JLT Jan15-Jan.16. Our work in GreenMeter was recognised through the 2016 Edison award in the Collective Disruption category. A spinoff company was created as a result of the work on energy efficient architectures. Protocols: One of the partners in the EPSRC INTERNET Project was BBC Research. The BBC's iPlayer infrastructure is a network that delivers on-demand streaming and catch-up TV to over 35 Million users in the UK. It is fairly unique in that it reaches homes where many people still also had (at the time) analogue broadcast TV, and digital broadcast TV reception, and recording equipment. We realised that content was being distributed in (at least) three different ways with different consumption patterns, and very different energy costs. One insight was that these systems could be unified at the point of reception, and therefore of recording, so that time shifting could be done at the receiver, rather than in the Content Distribution Network (CDN) via demand-tv/catch-up. We predicted what optimal pre-fetching via the broadcast/record option could achieve in terms of reduction in internet traffic, and in energy costs. The results were published in the 2013 World Wide Web conference [11]. Following this, and some furore in public about privacy, we considered if it would be possible to build an accurate predictor for viewing preferences, based only on genres of programme rather than precise viewing history, and a follow up paper showed that this is entirely possible, and used the details from the previous work as an oracle to check how well prediction would work. This was published in the ACM/IEEE joint journal, Transactions on Networks in 2015 [12], followed by later publications at IEEE Infocom in 2015 [13], [14]. The wide-ranging remit of the INTERNET project required flexible, reprogrammable network hardware to allow us to develop, implement and evaluate our ideas for low-energy physical line-code, and to better understand (and improve) energy consumption for common network protocols. We originally proposed the NetFPGA-10G platform, as Cambridge Computer Laboratory had substantial experience with the various reference projects: Internet router, Ethernet switch, and simple network interface card. Despite early success, we recognised a need for a new platform and as Cambridge took the lead of the NetFPGA project itself, the Computer Laboratory team in collaboration with Stanford University and Digilent manufacturer, designed and built the NetFPGA-SUME. This 100Gb/s-capable platform was introduced in [15]. We describe in [16] the effort and results of collaboration with colleagues at SRI International, and in [17] we explore a new direction of architecture that enables the truly energy-proportional distributed data centre originally imagined by INTERNET. Since February 2015, when the hardware became available, the NetFPGA-SUME community had grown to over 500 users, using more than 250 cards at 200 institutions in 47 countries. Hardware: The PG has been most important in allowing hardware research to progress in three areas. We studied advanced modulation schemes, these being found to allow the first real-time system at 100 Gb/s using a single wavelength laser source (this being essential if this technology is to be low cost). Using a technique which reverses conventional wavelength division multiplexing principles, we have demonstrated a multiple-wavelength system that consumes much less power than conventional systems [18], and has the potential to achieve speeds up to 1000 Gb/s. This was recognised by the Corning prize cited above, and has generated much interest. Secondly the INTERNET project has strongly support related research into the transmission of analogue optical signals used in radio systems. In terms of radio over fibre systems, we have developed a very different digital technique from the analogue version developed previously in Cambridge and now sold by Zinwave Ltd. This digital approach for the first time provides multiservice capability and has great potential for reducing overall energy consumption [19]. As stated above, it is already being commercialised. In parallel, we have used this technology to identify and locate passive RFID sensors at distances > 10m, a goal sought after for some time. Again this work is now being commercialised, it having been established in field trials that the technology out performs other known techniques [20]. A third area which the investigators believed strongly would lead to energy reduction was optical switching. Within the Internet project however we developed a new hybrid optical switch, using much less energy than existing switches [1], and this was demonstrated in Paris on behalf of the Greentouch consortium as a highlight. The work has continued to be successful as very recently we have shown that this new switch concept can be extended to port sizes greater than 100x100, thus solving a problem that has dogged the field for more than 10 years. References 1. GreenTouch Green Meter I Research Study, 2013, www.greentouch.org. 2. GreenTouch Final Results from Green Meter Research Study, 2015. 3. Dong, IEEE JLT, vol. 27, pp. 3-14, 2011. 4. Dong, IET Opto, vol. 8, No. 3, pp. 137 - 148, 2014. 5. Dong, IEEE JLT, vol. 30, pp.1931-1942, 2012. 6. Dong, IEEE JLT, vol. 27,pp. 1861-1880, 2011. 7. Osman, IEEE JLT, vol. 32,pp.2364-81, 2014. 8. Lawey, IEEE JLT, vol. 32, pp. 3607-23, 2014. 9. Lawey, IEEE JLT, vol. 32,pp. 1261-81, 2014. 10. Nonde, IEEE JLT, vol. 33, pp. 1828-49, 2015. 11. Gianfranco 22nd Int. WWW Conference, 2013. 12. Gianfranco, IEEE/ACM Trans. on Networking, 2015. 13. Dmytro "Video," IEEE INFOCOM 2015. 14. Dmytro, "On Factors..," IEEE INFOCOM 2015. 15. Zilberman, IEEE Micro, vol.34, pp. 32-41, 2014. 16. Jong Hun Han, IEEE NCS'15. 17. Zilberman, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A, 2016. 18. Von Lindeiner IEEE JLT, 33, pp. 700-9, 2015. 19. Tongyun, Microwave Photonics Conference, 2013. 20. Sabesan, IEEE TAP, Vol. 62, pp. 878-88, 2014. |
Exploitation Route | Communication systems and networks vendors, operators and service providers can use the energy efficient architectures, protocols and hardware developed in INTERNET to improve the energy efficiency of their networks and services. This is supported by our 5 new IEEE standards, NetFPGA platform and hardware which is already commercially adopted. A spinoff company was created as a result of the work on energy efficient architectures. |
Sectors | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) Education Electronics Energy Environment Healthcare Transport |
URL | http://project-internet.org.uk/ |
Description | The work in the project was recognised through a number of prizes including the 2013 IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC) best paper award, the Corning Outstanding Student Paper Competition winner (from > 300 entries) at the 2014 Optical Fiber Communications Conference), the 2015 GreenTouch 1000x award, the 2015 IEEE Comsoc outstanding service award, the 2016 Edison award in the Collective Disruption category and the 2016 IET Optoelectronics Premium award. The work led to 5 new IEEE standards that focus on energy efficiency. We chaired one of two technical committees in GreenTouch, the Wired Core and Access Networks (WCAN) working group with about 150 researchers representing about 25 of the 50 GreenTouch member organisations. We were well positioned to lead Phase I of the international GreenTouch consortium having received the 6 year INTERNET funding coinciding with its launch in June 2010 when both Universities joined the consortium. We played a key role in the two main GreenTouch outputs: Green Meter I and II, introducing 5 of the 6 energy saving measures in the core network including (i) mixed line rates (ii) sleep and low energy modes (iii) physical topology optimisation (iv) energy efficient network protection and (v) energy efficient content distribution and network virtualisation. We contributed to the sixth measure, energy efficient hardware through our semiconductor optical hybrid SOA-MZI based optical switches with a world record number (>1000) of components integrated in a single chip and a 100x reduction in energy/switched bit. Our work in GreenTouch Green Meter in WCAN led to the current world record 316x energy efficiency improvement in the core network, a significant contribution towards the GreenTouch 1000x energy efficiency improvement target. This was recognised through the 2015 GreenTouch 1000x award for "pioneering research contributions to the field of energy efficiency in telecommunications". We founded in 2013 the IEEE Green ICT initiative, http://greenict.ieee.org/, and continue to chair its activities. The IEEE Green ICT initiative, initially funded by IEEE Future Directions, secured $150k, $350k and $300k funding from the IEEE New Initiatives Committee (chaired by incoming IEEE president elect) in 2015, 2016 and 2017 and has set up Green ICT activities in conferences, standards (with 12 IEEE Green ICT standards projects), education (in partnership with NIST) and publications with a new IEEE Green ICT Magazine proposal having received wide support from IEEE societies and a new IEEE Transactions on Green Communications and Networking, inaugural issue January 2017. Our leadership in IEEE and our advocacy of Green ICT led to the IEEE Communications Society 2015 outstanding service award for "leadership and contributions to the area of green communications". Our leadership of the IEEE Green ICT Initiative led to 9 new IEEE standards in the green communications area. Five of these nine standards are the result of work in the INTERNET project. Two rapid reaction standardisation workshops were held in November 2015 (London) and July 2016 (Chicago) with the interested industrial (eg. Nokia, Ericsson, BT, etc) and academic members. The standards scope and focus was defined. In September and October 2016, the IEEE Communications Society approved these standards and Prof. Elmirghani was appointed chair of the working group responsible for these 5 standards; the IEEE Green ICT standards working group, https://standards.ieee.org/develop/wg/EEICT.html. In December 2016, the 5 standards were approved by the IEEE standards association. In the time between January 2017 and September 2018 the write-up of the 5 standards has to be concluded, final votes by September 2019. The standards will then start to be used by equipment vendors, network operators etc. Working with the GreenTouch industrial members we introduced the standards as a way to ensure that the INTERNET outputs are used and are implemented openly and in an interoperable way by the interested parties. The standards are: 1. IEEE P1925.1 Standard for Energy Efficient Dynamic Line Rate Transmission System, https://standards.ieee.org/develop/project/1925.1.html, based on: El-Gorashi, T.E.H., Dong, X., Elmirghani, J,M.H.: 'Green optical orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing networks', IET Optoelectronics, 2014, 8, (3), pp. 137-148. The paper won the 2016 IET Optoelectronics premium award. 2. IEEE P1926.1 Standard for a Functional Architecture of Distributed Energy Efficient Big Data Processing, https://standards.ieee.org/develop/project/1926.1.html. 3. IEEE P1927.1 Standard for Services Provided by the Energy-efficient Orchestration and Management of Virtualized Distributed Data Centers Interconnected by a Virtualized Network, https://standards.ieee.org/develop/project/1927.1.html, based on: Nonde, L., El-Gorashi, T.E.H. and Elmirghani, J.M.H., "Energy Efficient Virtual Network Embedding for Cloud Networks," IEEE/OSA Journal of Lightwave Technology, vol. 33, No. 9, pp. 1828-1849, 2015. 4. IEEE P1928.1 Standard for a Mechanism for Energy Efficient Virtual Machine Placement, https://standards.ieee.org/develop/project/1928.1.html, based on: Lawey, A., El-Gorashi, T.E.H. and Elmirghani, J.M.H., "Distributed Energy Efficient Clouds over Core Networks," IEEE/OSA Journal of Lightwave Technology, vol. 32, No. 7, pp. 1261 - 1281, 2014. 5. IEEE P1929.1 An Architectural Framework for Energy Efficient Content Distribution, https://standards.ieee.org/develop/project/1929.1.html, based on: Lawey, A., El-Gorashi, T.E.H. and Elmirghani, J.M.H., "Distributed Energy Efficient Clouds over Core Networks," IEEE/OSA Journal of Lightwave Technology, vol. 32, No. 7, pp. 1261 - 1281, 2014. Many of INTERNET's achievements have been made possible through extensive use of the Programme Grant mechanisms; for example, the 5 year GreenTouch engagement with its open mandate, much of the industrial uptake and awards, 5 new IEEE standards, changes of research direction, and the STAR and NetFPGA follow up projects would not have happened without the flexibility available. A spinoff company was created as a result of the work on energy efficient architectures. Below we summarise key INTERNET contributions in architecture, protocols and hardware. |
First Year Of Impact | 2015 |
Sector | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Electronics,Energy,Environment,Healthcare,Transport |
Impact Types | Societal Economic |
Description | IEEE P1925.1â„¢ Standard for Energy Efficient Dynamic Line Rate Transmission System |
Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
Policy Influence Type | Membership of a guideline committee |
Impact | IEEE P1925.1â„¢ is a standard for energy efficient dynamic line rate transmission systems. This standard specifies an energy-efficient rate-adaptive transmission system that can be used to deploy mixed line rates. It introduces the architecture and mechanisms needed to enable the use of an optimal combination of line rates to accommodate traffic while reducing power consumption. |
URL | http://standards.ieee.org/develop/project/1925.1.html |
Description | IEEE P1926.1â„¢ Standard for a Functional Architecture of Distributed Energy Efficient Big Data Processing |
Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
Policy Influence Type | Membership of a guideline committee |
Impact | IEEE P1926.1â„¢ is a standard for a functional architecture of distributed energy efficient big data processing. It specifies a functional architecture that supports the energy-efficient transmission and processing of large volumes of data, starting at processing nodes close to the data source, with significant processing resources provided at centralised data centre. |
URL | http://standards.ieee.org/develop/project/1926.1.html |
Description | IEEE P1927.1â„¢ Standard for Services Provided by the Energy-efficient Orchestration and Management of Virtualized Distributed Data Centers Interconnected by a Virtualized Network |
Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
Policy Influence Type | Membership of a guideline committee |
Impact | IEEE P1927.1â„¢ is a standard for services provided by the energy-efficient orchestration and management of virtualised distributed data centres interconnected by a virtualised network. This standard specifies an architecture for a service composed of distributed data centres interconnected by a network. It specifies the interfaces and the dynamic orchestration and management mechanisms for energy-efficient allocation of resources from data centres and network. |
URL | http://standards.ieee.org/develop/project/1927.1.html |
Description | IEEE P1928.1â„¢ Standard for a Mechanism for Energy Efficient Virtual Machine Placement |
Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
Policy Influence Type | Membership of a guideline committee |
Impact | IEEE P1928.1â„¢ is a standard for a mechanism for energy efficient virtual machine placement. This standard specifies an algorithm for energy-efficient virtual machine placement strategies considering network and computational power consumption. It also considers the geographic distribution of user demand. |
URL | http://standards.ieee.org/develop/project/1928.1.html |
Description | IEEE P1929.1â„¢ An Architectural Framework for Energy Efficient Content Distribution |
Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
Policy Influence Type | Membership of a guideline committee |
Impact | IEEE P1929.1â„¢ is an architectural framework for energy efficient content distribution which specifies a framework for designing energy efficient content distribution services, such as migration, placement, and replication, over networks. |
URL | http://standards.ieee.org/develop/project/1929.1.html |
Description | Converged Optical and Wireless Access Networks (COALESCE) |
Amount | £1,373,034 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/P003990/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 01/2017 |
End | 12/2021 |
Description | EU H2020 - PICS4ALL project |
Amount | € 2,000,000 (EUR) |
Funding ID | 687777 |
Organisation | European Union |
Sector | Public |
Country | European Union (EU) |
Start | 01/2016 |
End | 12/2018 |
Description | Industrial contract |
Amount | £10,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | Microsoft Research |
Sector | Private |
Country | Global |
Start | 03/2017 |
End | 07/2017 |
Description | Terabit Bidirectional Multi-user Optical Wireless System (TOWS) for 6G LiFi |
Amount | £6,604,394 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/S016570/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2019 |
End | 12/2022 |
Title | GWATT |
Description | GWATT ( Global 'What if' Analyzer of NeTwork Energy ConsumpTion) is an interactive on line software tools that captures the GreenTouch GreenMeter results in 3 areas: core networks, access networks and wireless networks. Our work provided all the basis for one of the 3 areas: the core network energy efficiency measures. The software code was written by Bell Labs working closely with us in the core network part of the software. https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/belllabs-microsite-greentouch/index.php@page=gwatt-visualizing-the-greentouch-results.html https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/belllabs-microsite-greentouch/uploads/documents/GreenTouch-Celebration-E-Poster-GWATT.pdf http://gwatt.net |
Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
Year Produced | 2014 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Widely used by the 50+ GreenTouch industrial and academic member organisations including Huawei, Nokia, AT&T, France Telecom, China Mobile and others. Widely used by the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSi) 40+ industrial members, which include BT, Samsung, Ericsson, Deutsche Telekom, Fujitsu, Microsoft, Sprint, Telefonica, Telenor, Verizon, ITU, |
URL | http://gwatt.net |
Description | IEEE Green ICT Initiative |
Organisation | Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) |
Country | United States |
Sector | Learned Society |
PI Contribution | Prof. Elmirghani is founder and one of 2 Co-Chairs of the IEEE Green ICT Initiative |
Collaborator Contribution | We founded in 2013 the IEEE Green ICT initiative, http://greenict.ieee.org/, and continue to chair its activities. The IEEE Green ICT initiative, initially funded by IEEE Future Directions, secured $150k, $350k and $300k funding from the IEEE New Initiatives Committee (chaired by incoming IEEE president elect) in 2015, 2016 and 2017 and has set up Green ICT activities in conferences, standards (with 12 IEEE Green ICT standards projects), education (in partnership with NIST) and publications with a new IEEE Green ICT Magazine proposal having received wide support from IEEE societies and a new IEEE Transactions on Green Communications and Networking, inaugural issue January 2017. Our leadership in IEEE and our advocacy of Green ICT led to the IEEE Communications Society 2015 outstanding service award for "leadership and contributions to the area of green communications". Our leadership of the IEEE Green ICT Initiative led to 9 new IEEE standards in the green communications area. Five of these nine standards are the result of work in the INTERNET project. Two rapid reaction standardisation workshops were held in November 2015 (London) and July 2016 (Chicago) with the interested industrial (eg. Nokia, Ericsson, BT, etc) and academic members. The standards scope and focus was defined. In September and October 2016, the IEEE Communications Society approved these standards and Prof. Elmirghani was appointed chair of the working group responsible for these 5 standards; the IEEE Green ICT standards working group, https://standards.ieee.org/develop/wg/EEICT.html. In December 2016, the 5 standards were approved by the IEEE standards association. In the time between January 2017 and September 2018 the write-up of the 5 standards has to be concluded, final votes by September 2019. The standards will then start to be used by equipment vendors, network operators etc. Working with the GreenTouch industrial members we introduced the standards as a way to ensure that the INTERNET outputs are used and are implemented openly and in an interoperable way by the interested parties. The standards are: 1. IEEE P1925.1 Standard for Energy Efficient Dynamic Line Rate Transmission System, https://standards.ieee.org/develop/project/1925.1.html, based on: El-Gorashi, T.E.H., Dong, X., Elmirghani, J,M.H.: 'Green optical orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing networks', IET Optoelectronics, 2014, 8, (3), pp. 137-148. The paper won the 2016 IET Optoelectronics premium award. 2. IEEE P1926.1 Standard for a Functional Architecture of Distributed Energy Efficient Big Data Processing, https://standards.ieee.org/develop/project/1926.1.html. 3. IEEE P1927.1 Standard for Services Provided by the Energy-efficient Orchestration and Management of Virtualized Distributed Data Centers Interconnected by a Virtualized Network, https://standards.ieee.org/develop/project/1927.1.html, based on: Nonde, L., El-Gorashi, T.E.H. and Elmirghani, J.M.H., "Energy Efficient Virtual Network Embedding for Cloud Networks," IEEE/OSA Journal of Lightwave Technology, vol. 33, No. 9, pp. 1828-1849, 2015. 4. IEEE P1928.1 Standard for a Mechanism for Energy Efficient Virtual Machine Placement, https://standards.ieee.org/develop/project/1928.1.html, based on: Lawey, A., El-Gorashi, T.E.H. and Elmirghani, J.M.H., "Distributed Energy Efficient Clouds over Core Networks," IEEE/OSA Journal of Lightwave Technology, vol. 32, No. 7, pp. 1261 - 1281, 2014. 5. IEEE P1929.1 An Architectural Framework for Energy Efficient Content Distribution, https://standards.ieee.org/develop/project/1929.1.html, based on: Lawey, A., El-Gorashi, T.E.H. and Elmirghani, J.M.H., "Distributed Energy Efficient Clouds over Core Networks," IEEE/OSA Journal of Lightwave Technology, vol. 32, No. 7, pp. 1261 - 1281, 2014. |
Impact | 1. A new IEEE Transactions on Green Communications and Networking, inaugural issue January 2017. 2. IEEE 2017 Greening through ICT Summit (Inagural event); held with IEEE ICC 2017, Paris, http://greenict.ieee.org/summit/gtict-summit-2017 3. Five new IEEE standards The standards are: (i). IEEE P1925.1 Standard for Energy Efficient Dynamic Line Rate Transmission System, https://standards.ieee.org/develop/project/1925.1.html, based on: El-Gorashi, T.E.H., Dong, X., Elmirghani, J,M.H.: 'Green optical orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing networks', IET Optoelectronics, 2014, 8, (3), pp. 137-148. The paper won the 2016 IET Optoelectronics premium award. (ii). IEEE P1926.1 Standard for a Functional Architecture of Distributed Energy Efficient Big Data Processing, https://standards.ieee.org/develop/project/1926.1.html. (iii). IEEE P1927.1 Standard for Services Provided by the Energy-efficient Orchestration and Management of Virtualized Distributed Data Centers Interconnected by a Virtualized Network, https://standards.ieee.org/develop/project/1927.1.html, based on: Nonde, L., El-Gorashi, T.E.H. and Elmirghani, J.M.H., "Energy Efficient Virtual Network Embedding for Cloud Networks," IEEE/OSA Journal of Lightwave Technology, vol. 33, No. 9, pp. 1828-1849, 2015. (iv). IEEE P1928.1 Standard for a Mechanism for Energy Efficient Virtual Machine Placement, https://standards.ieee.org/develop/project/1928.1.html, based on: Lawey, A., El-Gorashi, T.E.H. and Elmirghani, J.M.H., "Distributed Energy Efficient Clouds over Core Networks," IEEE/OSA Journal of Lightwave Technology, vol. 32, No. 7, pp. 1261 - 1281, 2014. (v). IEEE P1929.1 An Architectural Framework for Energy Efficient Content Distribution, https://standards.ieee.org/develop/project/1929.1.html, based on: Lawey, A., El-Gorashi, T.E.H. and Elmirghani, J.M.H., "Distributed Energy Efficient Clouds over Core Networks," IEEE/OSA Journal of Lightwave Technology, vol. 32, No. 7, pp. 1261 - 1281, 2014. |
Start Year | 2013 |
Title | OPTICAL SIGNAL TRANSMISSION SYSTEMS |
Description | We describe a method of communicating data using an optical WDM (wavelength division multiplexed) system, the method comprising : encoding said data into symbols on a first plurality of optical carriers of said WDM system; receiving said optical carriers at a second plurality, M, of optical receivers, wherein each said optical receiver receives more than one said optical carrier such that said optical carriers mix and a said optical receiver receives symbols carried by more than one said optical carrier; and processing electrical outputs from said optical receivers representing said symbols on said mixed optical carriers to extract said encoded data. |
IP Reference | WO2013072702 |
Protection | Patent granted |
Year Protection Granted | 2013 |
Licensed | No |
Impact | Industrial interest in adoption |
Title | PASSIVE OPTICAL-BASED DATA CENTER NETWORKS |
Description | A data centre network, comprises a first group of optical ports for connection to respective servers of a first group of servers; a second group of optical ports for connection to respective servers of a second group of servers; a first lower passive optical routing element arranged to route optical communication signals between the first group of optical ports and a first lower optical communication path; a second lower passive optical routing element arranged to route optical communication signals between the second group of optical ports and a second lower optical communication path; an upper passive optical routing element arranged to: (i) route optical communication signals between the first lower optical communication path and an upper optical communication path, and (ii) route optical communication signals between the second lower optical communication path and the upper optical communication path. |
IP Reference | WO2016083812 |
Protection | Patent granted |
Year Protection Granted | 2016 |
Licensed | No |
Impact | on going discussion |
Company Name | Celltron Networks |
Description | Celltron Networks develops fog computing technology, a technological infrastructure used to support IoT, through fibre-optic networking. |
Year Established | 2016 |
Impact | New networking hardware and software |
Company Name | Ecomm Limited |
Description | |
Year Established | 2012 |
Impact | Product is being co-developed with BIACD for the china market Finalist in the Cambrdge Entrepreneurial society competition. |
Website | http://www.ecomm365.com |
Description | A De-centeralised cloud could cushion the impact of IoT on ICT |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | article for Energy Central that discusses the massive impact that the emerging Internet of Things (IoT) will have in two ways on Information and Communications technology (ICT). It talks about the increase in sensors and devices and the related increase in energy use; and the applications of IoT in many domains, with impacts on carbon footprint. The blog considers the end devices and sensors and how processing at the IoT network's edge could decentralize the cloud and improve the sustainability of ICT in the service of IoT. For the full article, follow this link: http://www.energycentral.com/c/iu/de-centralized-cloud-could-cushion-impact-iot-ict Jaafar Elmirghani is Director of the Institute of Integrated Information Systems and Professor of Communication Networks and Systems, School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Leeds, UK |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | http://www.energycentral.com/c/iu/de-centralized-cloud-could-cushion-impact-iot-ict |
Description | Elmirghani, J.M.H., "Energy in the Digital Core," invited talk at IEEE 5G World Forum, Dresden, 30 September 2019 - 2 October 2019 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Energy in the Digital Core |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Elmirghani, J.M.H., "Greening ICT and Greening by ICT," Closing Plenary, IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society, Trivandrum, Kerala, India, 21-22 Oct. 2016. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Greening ICT and Greening by ICT |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Elmirghani, J.M.H., "Network Intelligence and Softwareisation in 6G," invited talk at EPSRC ComNet2 and the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists workshop on 'Software-isation The Challenges of Software Quality for ICT Intense Industries,' 27 November 2019, London. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Softwareisation The Challenges of Software Quality for ICT Intense Industries |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | GREEN ICT Special Report in the IEEE INSTITUTE |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | The March 2016 edition of The Institute, the member newspaper of the IEEE (received by all 430k IEEE members), included a Special Report on Green ICT and our work in the IEEE Green ICT Initiative. Several members and projects in this space have been highlighted. The March 2016 issue is here: http://theinstitute.ieee.org/ns/quarterly_issues/timar16.pdf |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
URL | http://theinstitute.ieee.org/ns/quarterly_issues/timar16.pdf |
Description | HOW THE INTERNET OF THINGS IMPACTS ICT AND GREEN ICT EFFORTS |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | article for the Intelligent Utility Magazine that discusses how the Internet of Things Impacts ICT and Green ICT Efforts. It talks about developments from healthcare and manufacturing to smart cities, smart agriculture and other areas and presents challenges, particularly in how IoT's rise will further challenge our efforts to "green" - or make more sustainable - information and communication technology (ICT). For the full article, follow this link: http://www.energycentral.com/c/iu/how-internet-things-impacts-ict-and-green-ict-efforts Jaafar Elmirghani is Co-Chair, IEEE Green ICT Initiative, and Director of the Institute of Integrated Information Systems and Professor of Communication Networks and Systems, School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Leeds, UK |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
URL | http://www.energycentral.com/c/iu/how-internet-things-impacts-ict-and-green-ict-efforts |
Description | IEEE COMSOC Student Competition, GreenMeter: Energy Efficient Core Networks Leonard Nonde, University of Leeds, UK |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
Results and Impact | Student competition entry to raise the profile of Green ICT and energy efficiency. A PhD student supported by the INTERNET project presented one of the entries: "GreenMeter: Energy Efficient Core Networks Leonard Nonde, University of Leeds, UK" the received an honorary mention, publicised to students and practitioners in the IEEE Comsoc website |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
URL | http://www.comsoc.org/2016-ieee-comsoc-student-competition-winners |
Description | IEEE Greening through ICT Summit |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | The Greening through ICT Summit (GtICT) examines opportunities both where information and communications technology (ICT) is used as a tool to improve environmental and societal functions, and improving the energy efficiency, carbon footprint and life cycle management of ICT itself. ICTs are currently transforming all spheres of human activity and creating, in our 21st century societies, a paradigm shift similar or even greater in scope and impact to the industrial revolution. ICTs are a key driver of sustainable development, with the potential to reconcile socioeconomic benefits with positive environmental impacts. The Summit's objective is to identify the combination of key technological, commercial and public policy challenges that must be overcome to achieve sustainability in our increasingly connected world. As such, it seeks to build a broad dialogue among the research community, ICT practitioners and its vertical application sectors, equipment and technology providers, the ICT standardization community, and with public policy influencers and decision makers. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | http://greenict.ieee.org/summit/gtict-summit-2017 |
Description | IEEE the Institute: Sustainability in a connected world |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | In the February issue of The IEEE Institute (received by all 430k IEEE members), Professor Jaafar Elmirghani, one of the Co-Chairs for the IEEE Green ICT Initiative, talks about Green ICT technological, economical, and public policy hurdles. These issues were the focus the IEEE Green ICT Initiative's global conference, the Greening through ICT Summit (GtICT), held 25 May 2017bin Paris. The conference's mission was succinctly captured by its theme: "Sustainability in a Connected World." It was held alongside the IEEE International Conference on Communications (IEEE ICC 2017) and the International Workshop on the Application of Green Techniques to Emerging Communication and Computing Paradigms. For the full article, please click http://theinstitute.ieee.org/ieee-roundup/technology-topics/communications/sustainability-in-a-connected-world-is-the-focus-of-ieee-green-ict-conference For more information on the May 25th, 2017 GtICT Summit and to register, click http://greenict.ieee.org/summit/gtict-summit-2017 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Invited talk, Elmirghani, J.M.H. "Network Intelligence and Energy Efficient Resource Provisioning in 6G," invited talk and invited paper at IEEE 6G Wireless Summit, MATILDA Workshop, Levi, Lapland, Finland, 17-20 March 2020. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | The talk focused on Network Intelligence and Energy Efficient Resource Provisioning in 6G and some of the projects they have done in Wireless and Access networks; IoT Networks; Core Networks; Data Centre Networks and will outline some test-bed implementations in the University of Leeds and Future Directions. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | https://sustainableict.ieee.org/blog/202008/network-intelligence-and-energy-efficient-resource-provi... |
Description | Invited talk, Elmirghani, J.M.H. "Sustainable ICT: Greening ICT and Greening by ICT," Invited talk at Comms4Italy, A solidarity initiative for Italy by telecom researchers during COVID-19 organised by IEEE Italy Joint ComSoc/VTS Chapter, 27 March 2020, online. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Sustainable ICT |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
Description | Invited talk, Elmirghani, J.M.H., "Energy Efficient Processing and Virtualisation in Future Networks: The EEICT Standards Working Group Activities," at IEEE 5G World Forum (5GWF'18), 9-11 July, 2018, Santa Clara, California. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Energy Efficient Processing and Virtualisation in Future Networks: The EEICT Standards Working Group Activities |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://ieee-wf-5g.org/2018-standards-and-deployment/ |
Description | Invited talk, Elmirghani, J.M.H., "Future Internet Networks and Systems," Ofcom, UK, 21 Oct 2020. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Future Internet Networks and Systems |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
Description | Invited talk, Elmirghani, J.M.H., "Sustainable Internet Design," IEEE Technology Time Machine (TTM), October 31-November 1, 2018, San Diego. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Sustainable Internet Design |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Invited talk, Elmirghani, J.M.H., "Terabit Optical Wireless Systems and Energy Efficiency," UK and Nordic-Baltic Countries 5G Forum, organized by 5G Testbeds and Trials Programme, Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), 8 Feb 2021. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | 5G Testbeds and Trials Programme |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Invited talk, Elmirghani, J.M.H., "Terabit Optical Wireless Systems for 6G Networks," EPSRC Towards Ultimate Convergence of All Networks (TOUCAN) Programme Grant final workshop, UK, 4 November 2020. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Terabit Optical Wireless Systems for 6G Networks |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
Description | Invited talk, and invited paper, Younus, S.H. and Elmirghani, J.M.H., "VLC Systems with CGHs," 13th IEEE Pacific Rim Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO Pacific Rim, CLEO-PR 2018), Hong Kong 29 July - 3 August 2018. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | This talk discussed using computer generated holograms (CGHs) in VLC system design to improve the achievable system data rate. The CGHs are utilized to produce a fixed broad beam from the light source, selecting the light source that offers the best performance. The CGHs direct this beam to a specific zone on the room's communication floor where the receiver is located. This reduces the effect of diffuse reflections. Consequently, decreasing the intersymbol interference (ISI) and enabling the VLC indoor channel to support higher data rates. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Keynote talk at 4th IEEE International Workshop on Next Generation Green Wireless Networks, Elmirghani, J.M.H., "Energy-efficient cloud networks," Dublin, 12-13 September 2016. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Energy-efficient cloud networks |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | Keynote talk at 5th IEEE International Workshop on Next Generation Green Wireless Networks, Elmirghani, J.M.H., "Greening big data IoT networks: Volume, Velocity, Variety, Veracity and the like," Sheffield, 17-18 September 2018. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | This talk discussed methods for greening big data and IoT networks when considering data Volume, Velocity, Variety, Veracity and the like. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://sustainableict.ieee.org/events/next-gwin-2018-2018-international-workshop-next-generation-gr... |
Description | Keynote talk, Elmirghani, J.M.H., "GreenTouch - Yesterday, Today, & Tomorrow," at IEEE 5G Energy Efficiency Tutorial San Francisco Bay Area PELS Chapter and co-sponsored by the IEEE Communications Society and the IEEE 5G Initiative, 19 September 2018. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Sustainable Internet Design |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |