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New Metrics Offer Better Ways to Map Energy Consumption
by Jeff Baher, Senior Director of Product Marketing
8/3/2009
As global climate negotiations continue in 2009, society faces a huge challenge to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 2050 – a daunting task considering the world economy is expected to triple over the next 40 years. There's no question that carriers around the world will play a key role in the growth of the economy. However, they will be faced with significant hurdles as the cost of energy continues to rise and consume a greater portion of operating expenditures. For these reasons, carriers, and the customers they serve, are reviewing how their products and services can positively contribute to the goals set forth in current global initiatives, as well as how to use energy more wisely.
In 2008, Ericsson set a target to provide up to a 40 percent reduction in carbon emissions per subscriber across its product portfolio within five years. As part of its effort to achieve these aggressive environmental objectives, Ericsson introduced new metrics to help optimize network efficiency and help customers cut energy usage. This is particularly important as carriers transform their infrastructure to IP and next-generation service delivery.
Many infrastructure customers are concerned about energy-related operating costs, as well as environmental responsibility, and are actively looking to identify areas of opportunity. Operators need greater insight into how specific platforms in their networks use energy and where to find efficiencies without impacting service, given:
1) energy usage accounts for up to 50 percent of an operator's operating expenses
2) energy costs continue to rise, and
3) IP technology is delivering new bandwidth-intensive services to an ever-growing number of fixed and mobile subscribers.
The network edge is the fundamental point of alignment of subscribers and services, and where the vast majority of control occurs. The IP edge and metro Ethernet platforms are responsible for aligning, shaping and monitoring subscriber traffic, and the circuits that deliver that traffic. As a result, these platforms are among the logical hot spots in the network to target for energy efficiencies.
Current metrics, which focus on conventional ‘Watts/GE' or ‘Watts/Port,' are insufficient to accurately characterize real-world energy consumption. For example, carriers with an IP edge slice the GigE channel or port to offer multiple services to subscribers. In this case, a metric that quantifies the degree with which capacity can be sliced and the associated energy consumption per slice is more practical than a ‘Watts/GE' or ‘Watts/Port"calculation.
The proposed new carrier metrics align networks for subscribers and services. They calculate energy efficiency based on the delivery of a specific service such as triple play, either in terms of power consumption per subscriber when looking at the performance of IP edge platforms, or in terms of power consumption per circuit when looking at the performance of Metro Ethernet platforms. Measuring the efficiency of the edge and metro platforms in performing their functions and delivering services provides more useful information and is in line with how those platforms are being provisioned and implemented.
Measuring how well a platform performs its application is the key. A non-related industry question regarding fuel efficiency sparks useful thinking for carrier networks. The question: Which is more fuel efficient, a Toyota Prius or a minivan?
The answer is not always obvious. In a straightforward comparison, a hybrid car like a Toyota Prius would always win the miles per gallon battle over a minivan or a truck since that is its main function. But if one were looking at the cost of transporting eight people from point A to point B, a van would be more cost-effective because only one trip is needed. Similarly, a truck can be more cost-effective if one's main intention is to haul cargo. It's clear that the answer depends on the application.The proposal is the same for carrier networks. New metrics for IP edge and metro Ethernet platforms need to take into account the different functions or applications being delivered by each network segment. Metrics that build linkages between service creation and energy consumption are inherently more pragmatic in helping carriers optimize their networks for maximum service delivery and efficiency.
Deriving application-oriented metrics for the IP Edge must factor in services per subscriber densities. Metro Ethernet metrics need to account for circuit densities such as number of Virtual Leased Lines to deliver point-to-point E-Line services or the number of MAC addresses to deliver multi-point E-LAN services. In the case of metro Ethernet, the ability of the platform's control plane to scale to support those circuits in delivering services is also critical.
These new metrics of power per subscriber and power per circuit are relevant and practical metrics for determining the efficiency of carrier IP networking equipment because they align with how carriers already think about their businesses. Service providers monetize their businesses and plan their network investments around dimensioning and capacity planning to deliver subscriber services. They judge the success of their subscriber business with metrics such as Average Revenue Per Subscriber (ARPU). Since ARPU is fundamentally the difference between the price they charge for services and the cost of delivering those services, anything they can do to track usage by subscriber and lower the energy OpEx cost per subscriber helps them optimize ROI as they build out the capacity of the network. The more metrics are in line with the economics of their business in terms of the costs associated with delivering services, the better. Metrics such as milliwatts per subscriber and milliwatts per circuit enable tracking of energy usage in terms of how many subscribers they can support on their network and how many services they can provision for each new platform investment.
For the IP edge, the metric models the sum of the power consumption of functions that are necessary to deliver subscriber services. For example, if you consider triple play or Fixed Mobile Convergence, multiple functions are required at the edge, some of which are IP edge routing, B-RAS, P2P management, and aggregation. "Watts consumed per subscriber-serviced"is the metric that best represents the totality of energy consumed by these functions.
For the SM, "Watts per circuit"(for point to point E-Line services or multipoint E-LAN services) is the metric that best represents the totality of energy consumed by metro Ethernet products. In metro Ethernet platforms, the ability to carve total Ethernet capacity into the highest number of virtual leased lines or circuits to carry services to subscribers is the key. What an operator really wants to know is: How many times can I slice it?
After putting these new metrics into practice, initial results are in line with the Telecommunications Energy Efficiency Ratio (TEER) methodology and standards set by ATIS, an industry standards body providing technical and operations standards for information, entertainment and communications technologies. As a member of ATIS, Ericsson has supported the creation of energy efficiency standard measurement methods and metrics. The TEER calculation for the Ericsson SmartEdge for 256,000 subscribers is 196 subscribers per watt (5.0 milliwatts per subscriber). The TEER calculation for the Ericsson SM 480 is 193 circuits per watt (5.2 milliwatts per circuit).
Based on these new metrics, Ericsson believes its SmartEdge Multi-service Edge Router (MSER) 1200 product delivers great energy efficiency because it combines multiple functionalities into one platform. The SM 480 couples the company's proven SmartEdge Multi-Service Edge Router software technology with new energy-efficient, high-scale hardware optimized to address demanding Layer 2 access and aggregation applications such as E-LINE and E-LAN.
According to Glen Hunt, principal analyst at Current Analysis, "Power consumption at the edge has always been important to carriers and a critical factor in OpEx. As the leading provider of telecom equipment and services, Ericsson is leading the way in providing more relevant and practical metrics for determining the efficiency of carrier IP networking equipment. This is particularly important as carriers transform their infrastructure to IP and next generation service delivery."
In addition to the focus on IP edge and metro Ethernet, Ericsson has made a concerted effort and reported significant reductions in energy usage for its WCDMA radio base stations, mobile softswitch solution, and site power management. Ericsson is reviewing other aspects of its operations including transportation, lifecycle assessment, sourcing, and site management, as these are part of a complete solution to shaping a carbon-lean future.
About the Author
Jeff Baher, Senior Director of Product Marketing, Ericsson IP and Broadband About Ericsson
Ericsson is the world's leading provider of technology and services to telecom operators. Ericsson is the leader in 2G, 3G and 4G mobile technologies, and provides support for networks with over 1 billion subscribers and has a leading position in managed services. The company's portfolio comprises of mobile and fixed network infrastructure, telecom services, software, broadband and multimedia solutions for operators, enterprises and the media industry. The Sony Ericsson and ST-Ericsson joint ventures provide consumers with feature-rich personal mobile devices. See our One Minute Videos on Key Networking Technologies
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