Volume11, Issue 3
in this issue
Going green gets easier
for telecommunications
network operators and equipment providers
New committee focuses
on standardizing home installation practices
TIA Reports Predicts Telecommunications
Industry Downturn
Related Subscription Information
Telecom/Electro
Standards Updates
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Going green gets easier for telecommunications network operators and equipment providers
Evaluating the efficiency of telecommunications equipment is about to get easier. The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) has released four standards that provide a methodology for measuring and reporting on the energy consumption of various types of network equipment. In doing so, the organization has introduced a new way to describe equipment efficiency: the telecommunications energy efficiency ratio (TEER).
Rather than simply focusing on energy consumption, the TEER helps define the overall efficiency of a piece of equipment by quantifying its ratio of work performed to energy consumed. This will make it easier for telecommunications network operators to compare the energy efficiency of equipment offered by different vendors. Until now, they’ve had to rely on vendor-specific energy consumption metrics to make their evaluations.
“The TEER encourages energy-efficient product design by requiring vendors to report the useful work performed by the equipment in addition to measuring the energy consumed to perform that work,” says John Messina, chair of the ATIS subcommittee responsible for creating the new standards. “Energy efficiency will improve through the competitive nature of the business and global pressure from the operators, consumers and government mandates.”
The standards were developed in response to a growing demand in the marketplace for more energy-efficient telecommunications networks.
“Historically, function, performance and reliability have been the primary considerations in the analysis of new network equipment,” Messina says. “Technology advances have helped to make some equipment more energy-efficient. Protection of our global environment, competition between carriers and the rising cost of energy have raised awareness and created a demand for improved energy-efficient designs.”
The new ATIS telecommunications equipment energy-efficiency standards are also intended to be used by manufacturers to help them design and develop more energy-efficient products, as well as test labs, which can use the procedures and reporting processes during the testing and verification of equipment.
“These standards were developed by subject matter experts representing equipment manufacturers, testing laboratories and service providers. As such, they were developed to provide the designer with the tools to predict and measure product efficiency, the test engineer with the parameters and procedures to evaluate and report product efficiency and the service provider with the report data necessary to conduct the analysis, selection and purchase of energy-efficient products,” says Messina.
ATIS has already published four standards in the series:
Another five standards in the series are currently under development. ATIS expects to publish them by the end of 2010.
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