Guy Daniels, Director of Content and co-founder of TelecomTV

The Green Network: Q&A Feat. American Tower Corporation, BT Global, Juniper, Verizon & Weaver Labs

Industry Voices Cloud MetroSustainability
Guy Daniels Headshot
Still image with I picture of Maria Lema with the words ‘Maria Lema, CO-Founder, Weaver Labs’ under her image.  On the righthand side there is a green icon that says THE GREEN NETWORK under it.  In the lower right corner it says ‘TELECOMTV’

The live Q&A show was broadcast at the end of day two of The Green Network Summit. TelecomTV’s Guy Daniels and Ray Le Maistre were joined by industry guest panelists for this question-and-answer session. Among the questions raised by our audience were: 

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You’ll learn

  • How important is energy sufficiency when selecting new equipment

  • What control does a Telco have over power usage

Who is this for?

Business Leaders Network Professionals

Host

Guy Daniels Headshot
Guy Daniels
Director of Content and co-founder of TelecomTV
Ray Le Maistre headshot
Ray Le Maistre
Editorial Director, Telecom TV

Guest speakers

Beth Cohen Headshot
Beth Cohen
SDN Product Strategies, Verizon
Irene Zhang Headshot
Irene Zhang
Director of Product Marketing, Cloud Metro & Security, Juniper Networks
Sarwar Khan headshot
Sarwar Khan
Senior Manager of Global Digital Sustainability, BT Global
Tuoyo Ebigbeyi headshot
Tuoyo Ebigbeyi
VP of Innovation & Strategy - Energy, American Tower Corporation
Maria Lema Headshot
Maria Lema
Co-Founder, Weaver Labs

Transcript

0:00 foreign [Music]

0:07 welcome back to the Telecom TV Summit on the green Network and our live q a show

0:13 I'm Guy Daniels director of content and this is our third and final live q a

0:20 show of this year's Summit well today's panel discussion looked at Energy

0:25 Efficiency targets for new infrastructure and we have already

0:30 received questions from you on this and some of our panelists are back with us now to help answer them but there is

0:38 still time for you to send additional questions however you do need to act

0:43 fast please use the Q a form that's right here on the website

0:49 and as always your co-host for the Q a show is Ray lamatra editorial director

0:54 at Telecom TV Ray this whole Summit has looked at efficiencies and targets and

1:01 best practices and whilst green energy and alternative power sources are

1:07 important elements I'm really pleased that Turco is looking at a much broader range of solutions to enable the green

1:14 Network yeah absolutely guy and thankfully those Solutions have been in development for

1:20 quite a while already we saw some of them at last year's mwc in Barcelona for

1:25 example uh while we'll also we've also seen some power generation and storage technologies that previously were the

1:33 reserve of developing markets now being considered in the rural areas of developed markets too which makes a lot

1:40 of sense the Big Challenge now as Network operators develop more distributed networks is to do all of

1:47 this in a way that doesn't cancel out what's already been achieved I'm sure we're going to be talking about that

1:53 during today's session yes absolutely and it's going to be

1:59 interesting to hear what our audience thinks about this thank you for now Ray

2:04 okay let's meet our guests and we have an absolutely Stellar lineup for today's show joining us live on the program are

2:13 Sarah Khan who is senior manager for Global digital sustainability at BT

2:19 global Beth Cohen sdn product strategies at Verizon

2:25 Irene Zhang director of product marketing Cloud Metro and security at

2:31 Juniper Networks Toyo e big Bibi who is VP Innovation and

2:37 strategy energy at American Tower and Maria lemur who is co-founder of Weaver

2:44 Labs hello everyone it's really good to see you again lots of audience questions for us to get through so let's get going

2:52 and over to you Ray for our first question okay thanks very much guy and the first

2:58 question from our audience today is as follows the question is what do you

3:03 anticipate will be the impact of edge data centers on the profile of power

3:09 consumption so what kind of impact will Edge data center proliferation have on

3:15 power consumption Network operators um Beth maybe we can come to you for a

3:21 response to this one first yep happy to to address this you know

3:27 obviously telecoms in general are are living The Edge so to speak you know we

3:33 have um hundreds of thousands or possibly millions of access points particularly

3:40 if you figure in the infrastructure to support mobile networks and um so the

3:49 way I see it is that um certainly uh you know it's it's um

3:54 it's a game of whack-a-mole basically which is that um you know as you move power out to the

4:01 edge you're reducing your power needs in the at the core

4:06 um but at the same time core power generally is greener

4:12 and it's more efficient because um you know the core data centers can tap into you know um

4:20 hydropower or you know other types of power that you know at the edge you're you have more limited access to uh so I

4:29 would say in general it's a wash okay it's a whack-a-mole wash

4:35 so that's uh yeah it's a it's a tough one to uh to juggle there isn't it I

4:41 mean it's certainly can have some kind of impact um we're going to come to Maria next and then to Toyo so Maria first

4:49 um yeah so I think it's a very interesting question and I just want to chip in with some of the findings that

4:54 we have had based on edge deployments for Smart City applications um very much focused on the use of

5:01 private networks so when when you go to the edge and

5:07 um you add that level of granularity you also have more control over the power of

5:13 those resources and the the the fact that the ad

5:18 um kind of like distributes the whole network a lot more um you can act on the different level of

5:25 resources that you have more independently than when you have more centralized deployments uh distributed

5:32 networks will allow us to power on and off our assets based on the needs and

5:38 the congestion therefore Edge can be a way to to reduce power consumption uh

5:46 when I aided with a proper technology to do so you know in terms of intelligent

5:53 data Gathering and also enforcing all of those decisions onto the the elements of

6:00 the ad but definitely more granularity can help us uh distribute the the workload better and be more more

6:07 intelligent and how we distribute the power of resources as well

6:12 okay thank you Maria and uh Toya let's come to you next no absolutely it's it's a fascinating

6:18 question I think two things that from my perspective are table Stakes are the

6:24 first is The Edge is still uh nascent um and as as both Maria and bethes have

6:30 alluded to the Smart City applications there's um you can think about it from a

6:35 radio architecture Network perspective as well and some people argue that the edge is at the cell phone so the point

6:42 there being that the edge is still being defined as we think about this question and the second one it's very use case

6:49 dependent and so there are a couple of ways to think about what you will do at the edge from a data center or compute

6:56 perspective the first is what I've just mentioned it's Computing and think about you know from high-end analytics to

7:03 basic uh Network functions from a radio architecture perspective that required different levels of energy density

7:10 there's also storage so think about your content distribution networks think about the ability to cash at closer to

7:18 the customer or the end user so you have lower latency and easier streaming or

7:23 use of of these platforms and the third one is is networking and it ranges from

7:29 high-end Network functions to transporting think about optical fiber and so when you think about all these

7:34 three different use cases or or modes of you deploying Edge data centers there's

7:40 a whole bunch of applications that are still being developed if you think about the metaverse if you think about low

7:46 latency and high-end gaming for example that are going to dictate the amount of energy consumption that are linked to

7:54 this use cases so a typical rack you know at a core data center could range depending on density from about five

8:00 maybe even two if it's really a low compute needs to anywhere between 20 to 30 kilowatts of density per rack and as

8:08 you think about these different use cases and you start to distribute this infrastructure to the edge it will be a

8:14 game changer in terms of how we think about the the energy consumption that will need to power all these different

8:19 use cases so I guess the first point is it's being defined so there's going to be a lot of unopen or unanswered

8:26 questions around the role Edge data centers will play with Energy Efficiency but as I can see from the way the

8:32 industry is trending the focus is on making these infrastructures that are deployed on the edge efficient so that's

8:39 a good start and then the second one is it's going to be use case dependent you could see Edge data centers ranging from

8:45 100 kilowatts to up to a megawatt so a massive range in terms of deployment

8:51 space availability and capacity requirements and what it will take is really an ecosystem of service providers

8:59 content distribution networks infrastructure providers like the likes of American Tower and other members if

9:05 you think about OEM manufacturers that produce these equipments and servers manufacturers as well to come together

9:12 to help Define The Edge and make it energy efficient as we evolve towards

9:17 the edge yeah a great answer there to you and I

9:22 guess by the time we do get to a scenario of you know tens of thousands of edge data centers

9:30 in any particular Market the whole industry from the chip vendors to the system vendors uh the the server

9:38 developers the application developers everything will have moved on and much more towards greater Energy Efficiency

9:45 so uh really interesting one to track and I'm sure we'll come back and talk about this at next year's green Network

9:52 Summit as well okay uh fantastic start to the show guy over to you for the next

9:57 audience question yeah thanks Ray and you're on your last point there I'm sure we will because

10:03 we've had several related questions about the edge come in so we'll definitely be following up on those uh

10:11 next question here um we heard today on the summit of some

10:16 smart innovations that can help with green Network goals plus the need for

10:22 more software-based solutions is Network optimization perhaps the easiest or

10:28 quickest way therefore to reduce energy and Emissions well uh Maria perhaps you

10:35 could start us off with this because we we heard from you um earlier about an hour or so ago about this uh very

10:40 subject um yeah sure I have to take this one

10:46 um in terms of innovation that can help us um be greener at the end of the day the

10:52 software tools that the the telecoms industry are building right now are helping us be more efficient with our

10:58 assets and efficiency goes hand in hand with uh you know helping reduce that the

11:05 emissions and getting closer to your The Net Zero approach that we want to get

11:10 there so um at the end of the day what software is going to give us is information

11:15 and potentially the tools to act on that information in a form that we can act

11:22 with a certain policy and that policy can be uh you know reduce power or um

11:28 direct traffic to areas where we have more um access to renewable energy

11:36 um so the point is that software can help us build that information gathering and act upon the other thing that

11:43 software can help us do is infrastructure sharing which of course it's it's another way of of reducing our

11:51 carbon emissions and and being more efficient because we reduce the overbuilding

11:56 um we can reuse assets that already exist and potentially are underused

12:01 um and also we can increase the efficiency of those assets by having more tenants on them so and and software

12:09 can help onboard customers faster it can help us go into more infrastructure as a

12:15 service business models um and access infrastructure opportunistically where we need it so

12:21 definitely software is the way to go because as much as we can we can look at

12:26 in being more efficient in in um you know where do we draw the power we have little control on that right

12:33 like that is up to the energy sector to give us the tools on the renewable energies and the clean energy that we

12:40 are consuming but then what's on our agenda is to try and make the most with

12:45 the resources that we have and potentially looking at new deployments how can we actually act on on those

12:52 resources in a much more efficient way and if something we can learn from from

12:58 the cloud is that it enables us to be way more efficient and all of that is is

13:03 based in software so I'm a huge believer that actually software is going to be

13:09 the the way to go and looking at the recent advancements on AI and how data

13:15 fabric can actually help uh make all of these Intelligent Decisions

13:20 um that's that's also based in software so yeah absolutely software is the way to go and network optimization will be a

13:26 result of that thank you very much Maria um sounds very encouraging indeed well

13:33 this question is obviously uh struck a nerve with a lot of you because it looks like I think you all want to to contribute and to this question so first

13:41 of all let me go across to Sarah for for your comment server yeah absolutely I mean just to build on

13:47 what Maria is saying you leveraging software you actually gain visibility of

13:52 assets you you didn't have visibility of before and that enables you to start making some informed um actions so what

14:01 what are you actually optimizing for the the first one is well if you if you have visibility of devices that are sat there

14:07 in idle mode is there a better way of leveraging those assets is there a way of powering them down

14:14 into the deep sleep modes another option is to optimize for matching with renewable energy on the grid so as Maria

14:20 said you know data sources from the local grid providers will become critical and being able to match when

14:27 you run your networks run your workloads and applications over the networks to match renewable energy on the grid gives

14:33 you the potential to lower your overall carbon footprint so I think software Solutions is is absolutely key and

14:40 probably the critical enabler actually to to help towards organizations either

14:46 reducing their energy consumption or working towards um decarbonization

14:53 oh interesting observations there thanks very much for those um Irene let's come across to you for

14:59 your comments yeah um definitely agree that software play a huge role right and um in terms

15:07 of whether optimization depends on how we look at it one is for accessing network with software that you can

15:14 improve the utilization rate that and make it more efficient or okay when it

15:19 hotter that's one way and the other is where if when you have software that

15:25 allows you to um to apply sleep mode for parts that you that it doesn't need to

15:32 be on all the time and uh that way you can also save energy

15:37 the part another point that I wanted to add is that when you have existing

15:43 network with software you can optimize to improve the energy usage but don't

15:49 stop there um because uh there's only so much there will be certain percentage that you will

15:56 you will hit and that will be um with software only so as we think

16:01 about long term there's always important to think about how software and hardware and all the also the power supply all

16:09 things to consider for the maximum Improvement for power efficiency

16:16 good points I mean we should not forget uh Hardware then hardware and software working together

16:22 um it's all about optimization it sounds uh thank you for those comments uh Toyo let's come across to you next please

16:30 absolutely I think that the points really really resonate with me that some of the other panelists have brought up

16:36 the only sort of addition to the comments made that I would add is I'm beginning to see and it it less so in a

16:43 4G world but certainly in a 5G environment a lot of the software optimize optimization historically so

16:51 this is you know pre-5g has really been in microcosms and if you look at it

16:56 specifically let's look at the the Telecommunications Network um because it's carrier grade

17:02 infrastructure in Second To None um you look at the Rand and you look at the central offices and you look at the

17:08 core and they all somewhat operated you know in in in microcosms or the

17:14 interconnected but in terms of the efficiencies and the softwareization of that that leads you to drive increased

17:20 efficiencies which will lead to lower energy consumption I'd historically seen that in microcosms and the mobile

17:27 network operators over the last couple of years certainly not starting you know anytime soon I've spent a lot of money

17:33 and time and resources virtualizing their whole network stack from the core to the edge and what that means is

17:40 you're disaggregating to the point that Irene just mentioned the hardware and the software functions and allowing for

17:46 a lot more think about you know the hyperscalers the containerize containerization of of software

17:52 applications and and compute resources and if you can disaggregate it the

17:57 software and the hardware component such that you have a lot more efficiency all across the network value chain your area

18:04 under the curve to optimize increases so that's the only comment I would make is it seems like the evolution of the

18:10 network is with virtualization and software defined networks are even

18:15 pushing higher degrees of efficiencies on a broader scale as opposed to in microcosms that would lead to a

18:22 potential reduction in overall energy consumption of these networks over time

18:30 thank you Toyo for for that uh so about taking more of a holistic approach

18:35 across the entire network rather than um as you say a modern microcosm approach

18:40 that we've seen in the past uh Beth let's come across to you to um wrap up

18:45 comments on this question then please uh so there's been a lot of threads

18:51 um you know and I think people have touched on Irene touched on the hardware aspect Toyo touched on the on the

18:58 overall aspect and uh and Maria touched on the on the uh AI aspect and and I

19:06 think that we're still very much at the beginning stages of of tying these all

19:12 together and not to not to say that I'm not optimistic we'll get there I think we're just not there yet and

19:20 um and and so I've been working currently on uh some AI work around uh networking

19:27 and networking efficiency and with optimizing networks using AI you

19:35 need to know what you're looking for and it's not clear that we do yet to know

19:42 what we're looking for networks tend to work you know have pretty steady state workloads so yes virtualization

19:49 certainly helps at least to to a certain extent by you know maximizing the use of

19:55 the hardware um but you know virtualization does not really address uh you know some of the

20:03 other um workloads related to changes in workload over time which um you know

20:09 networks don't work that way typically so you know the jury's still out I think

20:15 in terms of being able to take advantage of AI to to drive

20:22 green efficiency so you know yeah I'm looking forward to it but I I don't

20:28 think we're there yet no thank you very much Beth um and I I

20:33 think it's been refreshingly honest throughout the three days of of this Summit that so many of our guests have

20:38 said there's a huge amount of work still to be done um we are still quite a distance away

20:45 from knowing exactly what we need to do let alone achieving it thanks very much for for those comments everyone uh Ray

20:52 shall we move on to our next question yeah absolutely and you know I just want

20:57 to say as well great point from Beth there the reason we're getting so many questions in for this Summit is that

21:03 there are so many questions sill to us so much still to be done so uh you know that's why we fully expect the green

21:08 Network Summits to uh to be running for quite a few years yet

21:13 um so let's move on to our next audience question and that is uh should all

21:20 Network operators be mandated to share their physical infrastructure in order

21:26 to reduce the Telecom sectors carbon footprint uh well this seems like a bit

21:33 of a devil's advocate question but here it is so let's start with toyo

21:39 absolutely and thanks for the question I think you know never really efficient to

21:44 mandate um anything really um because there are challenges in terms

21:50 of the incentives and and what are what are we trying to solve for uh

21:56 individually and holistically so I think mandate's a very strong word what I will

22:01 say about this is I think and and Irene touched on this during the panel which

22:07 is they're business models that key operators around the world so not just

22:12 on North America because the energy landscape globally it does vary based on geography and regulation uh there are

22:20 key problems that operators are looking to solve and from my landscape I can I can boil it down to two the first is uh

22:28 Energy Efficiency and cost efficiencies linked to Energy Efficiency specifically and the second one is sustainability so

22:34 making these assets these networks a lot more greener than they used to be historically what we have seen is

22:42 sharing economics Works uh to to help solve for those two uh problem

22:48 statements on a broader scale tends to be you know Case by case as I mentioned

22:53 based on the geographic nuances and the operator needs and whether you're deploying it at the back row base

22:59 station or Telecom Tower or you're looking at a data center or Central office for example all the different

23:06 needs of the operator need to be taken to consider into consideration but in

23:11 largely in a large if you look at it in a broad brushed way sharing economics does reduce the overall energy

23:17 consumption it does lead to the opportunities for you to deploy more green energy to support a broader base

23:24 of customers than a single customer and we've seen this with the tower infrastructure but to the point that I

23:29 really touched on the panel I say this only works if the business case works it has to be win-win for both the operator

23:36 and the vendor that is supplying a shared infrastructure solution to the operator I think oftentimes people look

23:43 for a solution trying to solve a problem and oftentimes it it leads to a lot of

23:49 operators choosing to self-perform or do it themselves because whatever solution is put in front of them is not specific

23:56 to their need so I think for us to be able to go to a point where shared infrastructure from an energy

24:02 perspective becomes more vendors like the likes of tower codes like American Tower or other

24:09 infrastructure providers need to think about win-win business models that

24:14 generate efficiencies for both you know the vendor supplying that solution as well as the operator that needs that

24:20 solution to be able to really unlock the the the benefits that come with shared

24:26 infrastructure specifically within energy okay yes great points there Toya thanks

24:32 very much and uh uh we've got a lot of uh a lot of panelists wanting to respond

24:37 to this once we're going to come to Beth next before Maria so Beth

24:42 uh so I'm I'm speaking from you know the Telco perspective and you know as Toyo

24:48 mentioned uh you know telcos are already heavily

24:54 regulated and uh be careful what you wish for uh and I think that

25:02 um as Toyo mentioned mandate is a very um fraught word and we are actually

25:09 motivated to be green uh for you know there's plenty of of you know Financial

25:16 incentives um to reduce our footprint uh so that alone can can really drive it but it

25:23 also needs we also need to work hand in hand with with the hardware providers uh you know

25:31 because you know we don't we don't build our own Hardware we obviously buy it from other people or other companies and

25:38 the other companies need to be motivated to reduce the carbon footprint and and reduce the energy consumption as well so

25:47 um as was mentioned during the panel we need to put it in our rfps to say hey

25:53 we're going to we're looking at you know one of the criteria for buying your equipment is going to be

26:00 you know reduced energy footprint because you know yeah maybe you know

26:06 your energy cost is a one-time cost but our energy cost is an ongoing cost so

26:12 you know for us to you know so we get a higher value out of reducing the energy

26:19 consumption of Any Given piece of Hardware so it's a business decision

26:24 um and you know we can we absolutely support uh the you know reduction of

26:30 carbon footprint and and higher Energy Efficiency but I don't think it needs to be mandated

26:37 okay great point so Beth thanks very much um Maria let's come to you next

26:42 yeah I think it's a general sentiment that the word mandate it's a little bit strong in this case

26:49 um I believe in incentives and incentivizing infrastructure sharing is what we should be doing as an industry

26:55 and from government and Regulators also communicate the what what is the good

27:02 side of of infrastructure sharing and and worthy incentives Lie from from an

27:07 industry perspective right so there is of course a cost reduction there is an efficiency of assets there is the whole

27:14 you know wholesale model that it's very much outdated and slow so again bringing

27:21 back the topic of software it's it's how do we make all of these agile and flexible so that infrastructure as a

27:27 service is appealing um in order to fulfill with those incentives which are cost reduction and

27:35 efficiency Improvement on on the assets themselves but it all comes down again

27:40 to to the business model I don't think that the model of infrastructure sharing

27:45 it's it's valid for the entire network and infrastructure sharing is a model

27:51 that that it's it it's good for certain areas of the network and we should be

27:56 flexible enough uh to adopt that model in in areas where it is and also as Beth

28:02 was saying look at other ways of reducing carbon footprint with more efficient Solutions when we we do not

28:09 want to share infrastructure in certain areas of the network by you know having more control over over the power

28:15 consumption and having more control over those assets but yeah I guess the message here is uh last mandate more

28:22 incentives and competitiveness in the market so that we are all pushing the same direction rather than just pointing

28:29 fingers okay great thanks and yeah it'll be interesting to see what happens in

28:34 Malaysia with the single 5G Network that's going to be shared and how that

28:40 will pan out in the next few years uh Sawa let's come to you next

28:45 yeah thank you I mean what I would say is is there really a need for

28:51 um as something mandatory actually many of the telcos around the world are setting Net Zero targets anyway and and

28:57 many are aligning to the science-based Target initiative the spta and as part of that the driving transparency

29:05 so one of the commitments one of the requirements there is to disclose scope one two and three emissions and within

29:12 scope two um there's a there's a requirement to look at the electricity usage across the

29:18 networks and what percentage of that is covered through uh renewable energy so there is already some level of

29:24 visibility that is accessible to customers accessible to investors and and shareholders through initiatives

29:31 like the sbti and organizations reporting on Net Zero and organizations

29:36 also have the opportunity to report into external ESG type of platforms such as

29:42 the climate disclosure project CDP and they can provide the information in terms of electricity usage percentage of

29:50 Renewables covering the electricity usage across their networks across to their supply chain and to their customer

29:56 base as well and and I think that's that route is probably the the best way for

30:01 driving telcos to to provide that information yeah absolutely great points so um a

30:09 great selection of answers there and very clear from all sides of the fence here what the the way forward would be

30:16 in in that kind of scenario but uh also a very interesting question as well so

30:21 at this point guy I'm going to hand back over to you for the next part of the program yeah thank you very much road because

30:28 it's now time to check in on our audience Poll for this year's green Network Summit one question seven answer

30:36 options and of course you can pick whichever ones you feel are the most important and the question we are asking

30:42 this week is how can telcos most effectively reduce their energy consumption levels and you can see the

30:50 real time votes right here and of course the numbers indicate the percentage of

30:57 respondents who selected each option which is why they don't all add up to 100 so for example we can see that oh an

31:04 overwhelming 72 percent of respondents have said Source more power efficient technology as a solution and if you've

31:13 yet to vote then please do so because obviously the more votes we get the better but don't delay because we will

31:19 close the polls tonight and then we'll hand it over to Ray to analyze it on

31:24 Telecom TV okay talking which we've got about another 15 minutes or so remaining so

31:31 back over to you Ray okay thanks guy and it has been really interesting to see how the poll results

31:36 have developed through this week as more and more people have voted that uh Source more power efficient technology

31:43 from vendors option has been the most popular one from the get-go but the votes have been creeping up all week for

31:49 use Ai and data analytics for real-time operations management what's most

31:55 shocking of course is that someone or more than one person has voted for the option do nothing Energy Efficiency

32:02 plans are not ultimately beneficial I'm hoping such votes have been cast for a

32:07 joke if not then shame on you I say and we'll be sending Greta around to have a

32:12 word with you if you voted for that okay on with the show now next audience question uh and here it is and this one

32:19 refers back to the executive interview that guy conducted with Lauren Le Boucher from Orange's Innovation

32:26 networks unit earlier in the week and the question is the orange the orange

32:32 executive said that operators should extend the lifetime of their Network equipment to make their networks more

32:40 green but does this really stack up isn't older equipment more power hungry

32:47 um so I'll get back to that interview with Lauren from Orange there Irene

32:53 maybe we can come to you first for for this one absolutely so when we think about this

32:59 question we need to think about what's the overall objective the over objective is make the network green and make it

33:07 more sustainable reduce the negative impact to the planet right and so while

33:13 power efficiency Energy Efficiency is a very um uh obvious way that we should

33:20 optimize and consider and very clearly align to the objective but sometimes

33:26 there are also other ways to accomplish objective and if we overly only focus on one part only focused on the power

33:33 efficiency we might lose sight of the others so what I exactly mean by that is

33:40 that for making a green the network more green or Greener that think about also

33:45 how we use longer like the components the equipments in the network that we

33:51 can make it more sustainable and use longer so while individually the individual device may use

33:58 higher power per se and still that's why measurement is important look at the numbers but if you instead of using the

34:06 equipment and we will replace every three to five years if you can extend it and use it much longer for 5 7 10 or

34:15 even 10 plus years that way that means that you you don't need to replace and

34:21 buy a new one every couple years and think about it from an analogy for consumers right we all have phones and

34:28 many of us laptops and tablets and one way that we can contribute to the planet

34:35 and reduce our carbon footprint is instead of replace those those devices every two years perhaps that we can use

34:45 it longer and also when we buy new ones to consider how how much longer that it

34:50 can use so that we can make more conscious decisions so those are the things very important to consider and

34:57 another thing is that for those equipment if it's only looking at the scale up option then yes it is it it

35:04 would be um how hungry uh individually but then if you are transition to a

35:10 scale out architecture where you add capacity horizontally and that way

35:15 um you can accomplish the capacity uh and also adding on those new equipment

35:21 and still remaining that that equipment so they extend the lifetime and you get

35:28 to the bandwidth need and also the power efficient the power consumption will not

35:35 be as um as hungry so to summarize is it's important to

35:42 consider it's not just overly just focus on the power but also the overall with the the reducing the E-Waste with X by

35:49 extending the lifetime of equipment yeah absolutely and I think you know uh

35:55 just to hop back to that interview Lauren from Orange was saying was referring to the carbon footprint uh

36:01 impact so bringing everything uh into play there and also talking at the same time about the ReUse of equipment across

36:09 the uh the orange group as well so bringing an awful lot of factors there but a really interesting discussion to

36:17 have their great points Irene uh so well let's come to you next yeah I mean this is this is a really

36:24 interesting topic actually if you look at the carbon footprint of a typical networking device then 90 of the overall

36:30 emissions actually sits in the in-use phase I so when it's consuming electricity only 10 of emissions is

36:37 allocated on average to the embodied emissions so what what is included in embodied emissions in a life cycle

36:44 assessment you would include everything from raw material extraction through to the emissions embodied at the point of

36:50 end of life so I guess if the question going back to uh you know understanding the carbon

36:57 footprint really every operator or every organization who was looking at this

37:02 they would have to perform a life cycle assessment to understand is there a way of reducing the in-use emissions so is

37:09 the older devices capable of going into deep sleep mode low power modes Etc if it isn't then

37:17 actually it'd be more efficient to actually replace those with devices that have those capabilities because again

37:23 going back to that 90 of where the emissions sit on top of that if you want

37:28 to retain the devices in the network for longer to reduce E-Waste You could argue

37:34 having 100 renewable electricity is powering the networks would also contribute to lower emissions so that's

37:40 potentially another way around around this and keeping devices in the ground for longer but actually many

37:47 organizations now including from a BT perspective we're able to return devices

37:52 to vendors there are schemes available and accessible for organizations to do that and they can ensure that devices

37:58 avoid landfill they can either put it back into reuse or they can recycle it and that actually gives you a positive

38:05 impact on your carbon footprint so overall in in summary really it's the the truth is

38:12 um you have to assess on um an account by account basis and and perform that

38:18 life cycle assessment to make a decision in terms of whether it's better to replace the device or whether to keep it

38:24 in the ground for longer okay great Point sir so uh thanks very much uh we're going to come to Beth next

38:31 and then to Toyo so Beth uh so I'd like to add on to to both

38:37 Irene and Sour's points uh they're um often and and

38:43 equipment that's been around for the last at least 15 20 years has generally

38:50 has the capability of going into uh into some kind of sleep mode uh which of

38:56 course reduces the power consumption uh which gets back to you know how do you do that and of course our earlier

39:03 conversation about software right so software is going to be how you how you put the hardware into

39:11 sleep mode or reduce power consumption so that's how you can get more

39:16 efficiency and and of course there's there's another factor in the life cycle

39:21 of maintaining the the hardware for longer which is of course there's a cost

39:27 to replacing the hardware somebody has to you know as we call it in the industry truck roll you know we have to

39:33 send somebody out to wherever the equipment is located where you know particularly in in you know where it's

39:41 um cell towers or or a mobile network it can be you know scattered

39:47 wherever like polls top of church towers um you know expensive places to send

39:54 people to change out that equipment uh and you know energy expensive too right

40:00 you know there's an energy cost to you know putting somebody in a truck driving

40:05 out to the location you know getting up to the top of the the light

40:11 pole sticking it on Etc so all of these do contribute to the cost of

40:16 Replacements so there's very definitely a financial and

40:22 um energy efficient um incentive to increase the length of

40:29 the life cycle of that Hardware you know if we can replace you know increase it

40:34 you know from three years to six years there's significant there's still

40:40 significant reductions particularly if we can use software to to reduce the you

40:47 know the reduce the the footprint the the energy use footprint of the of that Hardware

40:53 yeah absolutely all great points there Beth thanks very much uh Toya let's come to you for the final comment on this

41:00 question absolutely yeah I really enjoy the the comments from the other panelists that

41:06 the life cycle comment that Sawa mentioned is one that I want to build on with a specific example so uh in in a

41:13 previous role I spent a couple years in our Africa business managing our our operations where we do provide energy as

41:21 a service there to our you know customers at our infrastructure Telecom infrastructure sites and the life cycle

41:27 of how you look at from a cost and also asset life and and efficiency

41:33 perspective really does help make these decisions a little bit clearer so I'll

41:38 give you a specific example we were looking at replacing the backup batteries at all sites and with the

41:44 options of lead acid or lithium lithium as we know gives you a lot more

41:49 functionality in terms of the ability to cycle um and it takes a higher charging

41:55 current it has a longer life cycle compared to lead acid and you could do a lot of things in terms of energy

42:01 optimization with lithium versus lead acid which has a sort of high lower thermal Runway and can lead to a lot of

42:07 you know hazardous uh scenarios if not managed properly or at all and one of

42:14 the things we realize is if you look at it over a three year period you're probably better off buying lead acid

42:19 because of the cost of lithium which is anywhere between 20 to 40 percent more

42:25 expensive than some of these vrla batteries but if you look at the features that come with a longer

42:31 lifespan so if you look at over a 10-year period you could probably use that specific lithium battery for a

42:37 longer life cycle so the replacement cycles and the benefits of managing that new equipment over a longer period

42:44 starts to kick in in year four year five and in the the outer ears so just a comment to say that you know rip and

42:50 replace is a question that often gets asked for multiple reasons Energy Efficiency being one of them cost being

42:57 another maximizing asset value and you know return and investment on the capital another one but what I have seen

43:03 is that that life cycle analysis if not duly considered will make that decision

43:09 a lot less a lot less accurate because oftentimes people look at it on a

43:14 short-sighted or sort of a shorter window largely sometimes linked to their contractor obligations so they don't

43:19 have a have a choice but if you look at it on a longer term Horizon over a longer life cycle you begin to see a lot

43:26 of the efficiencies that come with some of these newer equipment so just a specific example to show how life cycle

43:32 analysis helps with deciding whether or not Ripper replaces is a better energy

43:38 efficient to cost efficient strategy for a network provider not necessarily answering whether one is a better one

43:44 but saying that there's a key variable to the equation often gets underlooked but makes a big difference in the

43:51 overall deciding factor okay excellent responses there to that

43:56 question thank you all for that great insights uh guy back over to you and are

44:04 we starting to run out of studio time now we are Ray thanks very much we're almost

44:10 at the very end we only got a couple of minutes to go so I think we so it's it's time for one of Telecom TV's legendary

44:15 quick fire rounds so um as briefly as possible please so so we can get some uh

44:21 a range of responses in Here's the final question of this year's Summit are we

44:27 starting to view Energy Efficiency as perhaps preferable to Pure Performance

44:34 when it comes to selecting new Telco infrastructure so there's the question

44:39 is it is it have we shifted from it all been about power and performance to actually just how efficient is this what

44:46 you know maybe this is a change we're seeing or or not any of our panelists

44:52 want to venture a comment as to whether that's actually happening in the industry now

45:02 thank you very much that's got Maria first and then over to Beth yeah so I think at the end of the day

45:10 it's always cost um and and it is about creating that that that you know the value between how

45:17 much does it cost us to build and maintain a network and how much money are we making out of the network so

45:22 performance drives the cost on you know how much money are we taking out of the network from the service perspective if

45:29 we drive performance up where we should be able to sell more connectivity and

45:34 therefore make more money if we are more efficient with our assets and we drive power down we're driving costs down so I

45:42 think like at the end of the day as an industry we're trying to find the balance between how much do we invest

45:49 on the other hand how much the return on the investment um it's coming so at the end of the day

45:55 it is the same it's the same question we're trying to answer but from from a different angle

46:02 ah nice thank you very much Maria uh Irene I think you want to come in on this one as well

46:07 yes um so I would not say Energy Efficiency has replaced uh performance

46:13 for when the selection but it is becoming very critical that we've seen

46:18 over the last two years the for most or almost every ifp that the Energy

46:24 Efficiency has become a top top criteria and from what we heard if render does

46:30 not provide sufficient details about that then it would not get selected or

46:37 it will not even proceed to the next step for the bidding process

46:42 oh that's interesting insights Irene thank you very much for that so much more more um importance given to Energy Efficiency

46:50 at Beth comments from you please um you know I'm again I'm from the Telco

46:56 perspective and yeah Energy Efficiency is certainly nice but performance is

47:01 still the overriding factor I think and and um you know I'll give you an example

47:07 which is uh it PCS used to have 640 K of

47:12 RAM and that was considered oh amazing we'll never fill that up ah no

47:18 whatever bandwidth we can produce it will get filled up by our customers

47:26 certainly well it's been going that way hasn't it Beth thank you very much indeed well it looks like um that solar

47:32 comments we have for that final question um which is handy because we are out of time uh thank you so much to all of our

47:39 guests who joined us for this Live program today and to our audience for sending in those absolutely terrific

47:45 questions and that is a wrap for the green Network Summit for this year but

47:50 Ray and I will be back next month for spotlight on 5G yeah wow time for yet another our third

47:59 Spotlight on 5G and there's still so much to discuss of course uh we'll have

48:04 our extra special 5G hats on during the next four weeks or so and be reporting

48:09 on all the main news from the show floor at mwc in Barcelona bring on the

48:16 albondigas and Rioja I say absolutely I'm going to place my order right now so please join us next month

48:23 for spotlight on 5G our online coverage of mwc and until then thank you for

48:28 watching and goodbye foreign [Music]

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