Aim to halve energy with ‘greener’ mobile network
Monday 10 May 2010
Researchers at the University of Surrey have joined forces with experts across Europe to halve the energy consumption of 4th generation mobile wireless communications networks.
The consortium hopes to achieve this massive reduction in the energy used to power networks within the next two-and-a-half years. It will mean a huge drop in the electricity needed to power the communications systems related to a new generation of communication.
Leading European communications companies and research organisations are involved in the project called EARTH (Energy Aware Radio and network technologies). The new systems and improvements could see a large decrease in carbon emissions as the electricity needed to power the networks would be considerably reduced.
The Centre for Communications Systems Research at the University of Surrey is one of 15 companies and research institutions involved in the project.
The EARTH project will research approaches to allow for unprecedented energy savings in the area of wireless networks, their components, and its radio interfaces. Based on this, EARTH will develop a new generation of energy-efficient network equipment and components and network management solutions.
The work also has the potential to foster the universal availability of broadband infrastructure in Europe, and globally, by yielding a level of cost savings for mobile operators significant enough to reduce the economical barriers that impede the larger-scale deployment of broadband services into rural areas of existing markets as well as emerging markets.
The industry-driven EARTH consortium draws on the diverse and complementary expertise of its members including mobile phone giant Ericsson. The energy efficiency improvements the consortium expects to achieve will contribute to a reduction in the CO2 emissions of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) sector and support implementation of broadband wireless services in an environmentally sustainable manner.
The EARTH initiative supports the European Union’s Work Programme for Information and Communication Technologies under the objective “Network of the Future”, which has the goal to realize the new generation of telecom infrastructure, network and Internet technologies.
The project is funded by the European Union's Seventh Framework Program (FP7) that seeks to play a crucial role in achieving goals of growth, competitiveness and employment by bundling all research-related EU initiatives together under a common roof.
Media Enquiries
Howard Wheeler, Press Office at the University of Surrey, Tel: +44 (0)1483 686141, or Email mediarelations@surrey.ac.uk