The U.S. Federal Government is looking for ways to reduce its environmental footprint through implementing energy efficient solutions that lower its power consumption, use renewable energy, reduce the use of hazardous materials, and reduce greenhouse gases – all while maintaining or improving its ability to perform its missions while lowering costs. Minimizing Federal Agencies’ dependence on energy is critical: not only is energy usage expensive and a contributing factor to global warming and other environmental concerns, but energy can also be hard to come by – particularly in rural and undeveloped areas that are frequently the focus of agency missions, be it on the home front or the battlefield.
Information and communications technology (ICT) is a significant source of power consumption. For example, faster, more powerful and dense telecommunications hardware generates significant heat and imposes considerable data center cooling requirements. With computer room air conditioning (CRAC) and cooling systems accounting for up to 45 percent of the energy consumed in the data center, the U.S. Federal Government is re-evaluating traditional approaches to data center cooling and seeking to lower costs and increase efficiencies through reduced power consumption, better utilization of space, and improved eco-sustainability.
As part of its effort to find more energy efficient solutions, the U.S. Federal Government is seeking to meet a range of energy efficiency mandates, including:
- The need to operate as cost-effectively and efficiently as possible
- The need to maximize energy efficiencies
- The need to address environmental and green-computing initiatives
- The need to manage and reduce operational complexity
- The need to minimize the impact on present data center infrastructure
LGS Innovations: Industry Leader in Energy Efficiency
LGS Innovations delivers cost-effective energy efficient networking solutions that align with a range of agency programs, including cost-effective operations, optimization of energy efficiencies, reduced management complexity, and the need to meet green computing initiatives. Extensive experience and the ability to leverage Bell Labs’ energy efficient networking solutions around thermal design and cooling technologies give LGS Innovations the knowledge and leadership to serve as the strategic partner in transforming U.S. Federal Government networks.
LGS Innovations’ commitment to energy efficiency is a reflection of our parent company’s commitment to reduce the impact of our communications and network solutions on the environment. Alcatel-Lucent has established a comprehensive eco-sustainability program, “Driving an Eco-sustainable Communications Transformation,” with a strategy that focuses on:
- Direct eco-benefits: We are building smarter, more energy-efficient, eco-sustainable networks, and we are addressing innovation at all layers. We evaluate the environmental impact of our products and networks to help drive innovation in both new and existing networks and equipment.
- Indirect eco-benefits: We are creating innovative energy efficient solutions and services that enable significant environmental benefits in different business sectors while enriching people’s lives in sustainable ways through such techniques as smart metering, smart buildings, smart transport, and teleworking.
- Eco-efficient operations: We are embedding environmental responsibility into the way we think and operate; eco-sustainability is integrated throughout our operations.
Alcatel-Lucent signed the “Caring for Climate” initiative in December 2007, and remains committed to setting goals, implementing corporate strategies and using more energy efficient solutions, and reducing our carbon footprint.
The U.S. Federal Government can be confident that LGS Innovations’ energy efficient networking solutions incorporate energy saving strategies that span across its product lines:
- At the hardware level: High-efficiency power amplifiers, highly integrated modules (such as the Twin TRX in GSM), or the multi-carrier power amplifier for mixed GSM, W-CDMA and LTE
- At the software level: Dynamic software adaptation of the power consumption to the traffic carried with dynamic power save in GSM, automatic carrier switch-off in W-CDMA, etc.
- At the site level: ‘No air conditioning’ utilizing outdoor cabinets, ‘no feeders’ implementing remote radio head technology
- At the wireless network level: High-coverage radio solutions like the Twin TRX in coverage mode in GSM, beamforming in WiMAX, etc.
Energy Efficient Network Solutions at Work
The Modular Cooling Solution was deployed in Alcatel-Lucent’s IPTV lab in Plano, Texas , where it has helped address demanding challenges and deliver quantifiable benefits of energy efficient solutions. Specifically, the goals were to:
- Develop and deploy a cost-effective cooling solution for a 17-server cabinet lab
- Increase server reliability and density
- Improve real estate utilization
- Reduce energy costs
The installation of the infrastructure and cooling system took place over several weeks and was fully operational by June 2009, ahead of schedule. What’s more, the results were immediate and dramatic:
- Reduction of exhaust (hot) aisle temperature from 40¼C (104¼F) to 22¼C (72¼F)
- Reduction of internal server temperatures from 32¼C (90¼F) to 24¼C (75¼F)
- Reduction of noise levels and energy consumption, since servers’ internal fans will run at lower speeds
- Reduction of building air conditioning load
- Reduction of overall operating expense
- Improved server reliability
http://www.lgsinnovations.com/solutions/green-networking
