The company claims that the the consortium will bring together experts from industry, academia and government labs to invent and deliver new approaches to bring a 1000-fold improvement in energy efficiency by transforming internet and communications networks.
This 1000-fold efficiency target is based on research from Bell Labs that determined that the current information and communication technology (ICT) networks have the potential to be 10,000 times more efficient then they are now.
This conclusion comes from a Bell Labs’ analysis of the fundamental properties of ICT networks and technologies (optical, wireless, electronics, processing, routing, and architecture) and studying their physical limits by applying established formulas such as Shannon’s Law.
Green Touch Initiative founding members include: service providers such as AT&T, China Mobile, Portugal Telecom, Swisscom, Telefonica; academic research labs such as The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Research Laboratory for Electronics (RLE), Stanford University’s Wireless Systems Lab (WSL); government and nonprofit research institutions; and other industrial labs such as Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT) and Freescale Semiconductor.
The company said that to support its objectives the Green Touch Initiative is expected to deliver, within five years––a reference network architecture and demonstrations of the key components required to realize this improvement.
The first meeting of the consortium will take place in February and will be dedicated to establishing the organization’s five-year plan, first-year deliverables, and member roles and responsibilities.
