Bell Labs, the research arm of Alcatel-Lucent, has released an updated version of its G.W.A.T.T (Global 'What if' Analyzer of NeTwork Energy ConsumpTion) application, a tool designed to help operators plan for the energy consumption and efficiency of their networks. According to Bell Labs, the version 2.0 of G.W.A.T.T. offers greater flexibility in the way operators model their network evolution, enabling comprehensive modelling of virtualization and bandwidth-draining video and gaming apps. It also provides greater flexibility in network evolution modelling. This includes measuring the impact on network energy consumption, cost and carbon footprint from greater use of new technologies, such as SDN and NFV, as well as high-bandwidth video and gaming applications.
Bell Labs said that network energy bills represent more than 10% of operators' operational expenses, citing that in 2013, 69 gigawatts was used to power data and communication networks including data centers – the equivalent of powering New York City 12 times over. Increased energy consumption is a key challenge for the Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) industry, added Bell Labs.
Marcus Weldon, Chief Technology Officer of Alcatel-Lucent and President of Bell Labs
With the advent of the Internet of Things era, and the inexorable consumption of video and cloud services promising to drive massively increased traffic across networks, it is even more important for operators to have a complete view of the energy impact of different technology and architectural evolution options. G.W.A.T.T. 2.0 has been built to allow operators to better understand these evolutions and to reflect upon the way they introduce new technology into their network.
Greg Whelan, Principal Analyst at Greywale Management/ACG Research
It really is a question of when not if energy issues will impact carriers' bottom line. A linear correlation between traffic growth and OPEX can't continue. Adding an energy strategy to the mix is the prudent thing to do. Alcatel Lucent is clearly taking the lead to address these tough issues. Their work at Bell Labs and through GreenTouch™ is setting the agenda for energy aware network architectures.
Joe Hoffman, Practice Director, Mobile Networks, of ABI Research
Alcatel-Lucent provides directionally correct guidance to the telecom industry with its G.W.A.T.T. service. The operator, regulatory and environmental communities can assess various 'what if' scenarios with the resulting economic impact and carbon emission. With the G.W.A.T.T. 2.0 release, an operator can tailor the network configuration to resemble its current network and future architecture choices. Alcatel-Lucent is the first to quantify the game changing nature of SDN and NFV regarding environmental impact. Everyone with an interest in meeting the challenge of Global Climate Change should visit the G.W.A.T.T. web site.
