I would like to thank the colleagues who spent effort and time to contribute to this important question. I expect much more contributions at least to turn the attention of our community for energy saving and efficient use of our depleted energy resources.

I would like to outline the methods raised by the colleagues to reduce the energy consumed in the communication and information activities:

- reducing the energy consumed in the bit processing devices, That is reducing the energy consumed by the computers

- Reducing the energy for the bit transmission

- Reduction on the algorithmic levels by developing energy efficient algorithms,

which means fewer processing steps to implement macroscopic functions.

I think there is remaining other techniques to reduce the energy in ICT.

Thank you again David,Mahmoud, and Ahmad.

Although I have no specialist knowledge in this area, energy is a major operating cost for data centres, and is a topic often discussed in journals related to data centre management.

According to the following article, about one-half of the energy is used by the IT equipment itself, with most of the remainder being used to run cooling / air conditioning equipment (primarily to remove that half of the energy used by the IT equipment and dissipated as heat!)

http://www.itbusinessedge.com/slideshows/ten-tips-for-improving-data-center-energy-efficiency-05.html

Therefore, there are many components of energy loss in operating IT equipment: the energy per switching operation in the data processing technology, energy loss in data transmission, storage, searching, and retrieval, energy loss in the power distribution system, and energy consumed to effect the necessary heat transfer from the IT equipment to the outside world. These losses can be addressed at a number of levels: looking for switching technology that consumes less energy per switching operation, more efficient algorithms, better power management (can some servers be switched off altogether at periods of low demand?), more efficient power distribution, more efficient heat-transfer (cooling), improved operating procedures for data management personnel.

The above article highlights a number of these 'higher level' approaches to reducing energy usage.

Maybe power line carrier (PLC) communication is an attractive alternative. PLC is a system for carrying data on a conductor also used for electric power transmission, i.e., it is an approach to utilize the existing power lines for the transmission of information. The benefit of this system is that there is no need for additional wiring because all communication is done over the existing power lines.

Of course there are many other possibilities such as wireless sensors communication for overhead transmission line, etc. which can be accommodated on PLC communication on the existing transmission lines to reduce energy losses.

One might think of energy being used in ICT for two purposes: 1) transmission of information and 2) processing of information. But at a more fundemental level, information processing really involves information transmission too. Think of a simple operation taking place in a processing core such as addition: operands and an instruction code are transmitted from registers to the inputs of an arithmetic / logic unit, and the result is then transmitted from the arithmetic / logic unit to a destination register.

Energy is used either to change the state of a circuit node, or while maintaining the state of a circuit node. In CMOS, energy usage was mostly associated with state changes, while maintaining a logic state used almost no energy (think of CMOS static memory, which have much higher current consumption when active compared with the current consumption when in a low-power standby). But as transistor geometries were reduced, leakage current increased, to the point now where static leakage current is a major consideration for power consumption in processing devices. However, processing speed has increased too.

So it would be interesting to chart a figure-of-merit such as joules per operation: a number that takes into account the energy required to change a node from one logic state to another, the steady-state power consumption resulting from leakage, and the time required per operation (essentially the period of the core clock frequency). If this specific energy consumption figure was charted for various technologies, I guess this figure would be seen to decrease over time - it has to, if it is not to be a limitation on Moore's law; otherwise, processing chips would have gone into meltdown long ago . . .

Another interesting question is, does data transmission over longer distances require more energy per unit of information. Almost certainly, yes - the more medium through which the information must travel, the more opportunity for losses. This leads to another thought - to maximise the quantity of information transmitted per unit of energy, one would want to maximise information density, which implies that it may be advantageous to employ data compression / decomprssion at either end of a lossy (in energy terms) path. Better still, minimise the distance that information has to travel - localise data processing and storage if possible . . .

the most part in machine that consumes energy is the CPU, in computer algorithms, some algorithms that use the CPU frequently consume more energy, other algorithms that perform the same task (faster/slower) consume less energy, using for example dynamic programming, which uses stored sub solutions rather than solving all sub solutions. instead of focusing on finding new faster algorithms, let us find new green algorithms. I am working on such a topic, any related info is highly appreciated.

I would like to thank the colleagues who spent effort and time to contribute to this important question. I expect much more contributions at least to turn the attention of our community for energy saving and efficient use of our depleted energy resources.

I would like to outline the methods raised by the colleagues to reduce the energy consumed in the communication and information activities:

- reducing the energy consumed in the bit processing devices, That is reducing the energy consumed by the computers

- Reducing the energy for the bit transmission

- Reduction on the algorithmic levels by developing energy efficient algorithms,

which means fewer processing steps to implement macroscopic functions.

I think there is remaining other techniques to reduce the energy in ICT.

Thank you again David,Mahmoud, and Ahmad.

can we use the energy of the incoming data?

I am not a hardware guy, it might be a stupid question, but what i know is that the received data cumming from a network to a computer is nothing but an electric current carrying the data, can we make use of such electricity to support the receiver with energy?

There is another dimension to this problem. We often focus on how much energy can be saved by ICT. We forget how much energy is saved through ICT. I believe both parameters should form part of the equation. Then there is the famous Jevon's paradox: if we produce more energy-efficient ICT and increase its consumption, are we in reality not consuming more energy?

Further to Ahmad's comments about CPUs, ARM lead the way in power-efficient processing cores, and highlighted 'MIPS PER WATT' as a figure of merit to compare energy efficiency of their architecture vis-a-vis competition.

Abdelhalim - to add to your list, I would include

- more efficienct power distribution

- more efficient thermal management

While these technologies are not directly involved with data processing, transmission, storage, they are a very significant part of the picture when looking at data centres as a whole.

We may think of using Solar Cell Batteries as used in Handheld Calculators,Multi- meters etc. and go only for LCD Screens for all Desktops also.Already the use of mobile i-pads etc. have been on the rise. As of now,banks of Solar Batteries attached to Desktop C.P.U.s seem to be an alternative.

P.S.

I would expand on Ahmad's comment on algorithm's and CPU utilization. Currently the drive for generic algorithms makes solutions highly ineffective in terms of energy efficiency, since generic programming on average consumes more resources than highly specific ones. I think that more research in this area is necessary

Another area that I find very promising is the use of parallel architectures which run at slower clock cycles but carry out vast amounts of processing in parallel. Again, the problem is algorithms(which we focus too much on sequential ones).

A third point would be on better process migration and the virtual machines those process run on. In today's virtual machine environment the focus is on administrator productivity and secondary thought on real process efficiency (again, more efficient algorithms are needed in this area).

My biased thoughts

Energy waste is not only through operation. But also through powering our ICT equipment is becoming more efficient, but the overall Hardware & Software Engineering is not energy conscious, if there is a mains power supply the energy efficiency is ignored. A lot of energy in computing is used to step down and smooth power from AC to DC, the transformers for all those devices are the main users of energy, a lot still do not incorporate standby/sleep mode for the power supply. Yes whilst the power demand of the display or computer is reduced the power supply is left as something that is not as important, how many devices are left on overnight with happily glowing (use a thermal imaging camera in any offices at night and you will see all the hot-spots) transformers.

Mobile computing has better appreciation of these facts, quite rightly mentioned by David Ashby that CPUs are important and Arm being one of the leaders in mobile computing applications are making low power demand chips. It is still a CPU under pressure that is consuming a lot of power, the GUI that has animations and high resolution colour is power hungry. Manufacturers are recognising this, on Samsung S5 the power will be reduced at certain point by switching to B&W display to extend the operational time by reducing demand on the processor. Software engineers are at fault and especially on the free Apps that continuously are location, usage and downloading the adware.

Pisupati is quite right we can reduce the power demand by simplifying the screens, but the consumers are still expecting all singing and dancing performance, games, media and entertainment rule the mobile computing. On the other hand solar PV for mobile computing will not provide sufficient power at this stage, but it can potentially extend the useful operational time by charging the device when not in use or oriented properly when in use. Larger PV power supply is better (but often it is still converted to AC and pumped into the grid, which in turn transforms and wastes large portion of it until it reaches the end user) and there is a movement towards Smart DC but it is still not taken as seriously by the manufacturers.

As i expected, thank you all for your valuable contributions on the energy saving in ICT.

I came late to the reesearchgate and could not comment on every contribution separately. However, as a moderator i would like to outline the raised solutions by the colleague:

- Dear colleague Ahmad, The receivers could not be powered from the incoming signals at their inputs because these signals are normally weak. The opposite i true,

the receiver must be powered to amplify, process and regenerate the received data.

Look at your mobile phone, it must powered to work properly.

- Ravi Foogooa raised the issue that ICT saves energy especially when they used in the power control equipment . Using ICT in energy consumption saving does not contradict to make them power efficient.

-Thank you David for your permanent contributions.

- Pisupati Sadasiva Subramanyam, yes we can save conventional energy sources by using renewable energy sources such as the photovoltaic energy.

-Arturo Geigel, Power efficient algorithms and system architectures can lead to energy saving.

-David Jazani,Argued since the ICT equipment are fed by DC power which is normally taken from the utility supply by rectification. This conversion process waste energy.

Accordingly one can save energy by more efficient converters.

- Krzysztof Bohdan raised an important issue which is the waste through careless human behavior.

Many peoples leave their computers burning energy exactly as we leave our lighting lamps even when we are not present in the rooms.

It may seem very bad with computers as the people believe that their electricity consumption is small. Is that not real?

Thank you.

@Abdelhalim, I do find this Guide very useful for ICT energy management solutions!

I'm not too familiar with what happens at the chip or server rack level, but I know there are energy management tools that make the servers run harder at night so expensive/dirty peak power isn't utilized as much during the day.

Once the servers generate heat there are lots of things that can be done to use or reject that heat efficiently.

The best option is to use the heat for various applications such as space heating and/or domestic hot water preheat. I believe water could be heated to 105F (40C), which is acceptable as a preheat in many applications. This of course requires there to be demand nearby so locating your data center near a heating load can be beneficial.

Using air-side or water-side economizers can be very effective in temperate climates.

ASHRAE 90.1-2013 has some guidance on energy efficient cooling of data centers. A proposed standard, ASHRAE 90.4P is under development that focuses on the energy management of data centers.

For medium size data applications that I typically work on (IT/data centers for healthcare facilities) there is ample demand for the rejected heat from the data centers so we use a heat recovery chiller to provide cooling, and then use the 130F (53C) water for space heating, etc.

Hope that helps.

Fred

Space heating may not be necessary in hot places,particularly during Summer Nights also.

Hence it is necessary that Power Consumption has to be reduced,or heat generated has to be less as this adds to the Problem of heat Dissipation.

So,it is a Complex problem.

P.S.

Beside PLC communication mentioned in my previous post on this topic, combined heat and power (CHP) is another possibility. It is the simultaneous generation of usable heat and power (electricity) in a single process, in one single, highly efficient process. In another word, CHP is an on-site generation of electricity and the utilization of the heat that is produced as a by-product of this generation. Apart from generating electricity, CHP systems can provide direct mechanical drive, steam or hot water, process heating, cooling and refrigeration and dehumidification products:.

I forgot to mention that CHP is not only efficient also it is a clean energy solution.

You may find the following report useful. It analyzes the opportunities for CHP technologies to assist primary power in making the Data Centers more cost-effective and energy efficient.

https://www1.eere.energy.gov/manufacturing/datacenters/pdfs/chp_data_centers.pdf

Yes, energy management is a key for energy saving. in the sense that is to reduce the energy loss in the idle system elements and components or even force their energy consumption to zero by switching there power supply off. Power management is a general concept that can be used on all levels of the system energy saving. That is in the algorithmic levels, at the system configuration level, the circuit level and the transistor level. It can be used also to save energy during using the equipment, like e, g, screen saver. Energy management means to bring control to energy utilization in the sake of reducing the unnecessary loses and increase the utilization efficiency of the energy. Really, introducing control bring rationalization of energy and efforts in the systems. So, I expect that the control science will be on the top of engineering.

In the mobile phones, there is a chip dedicated to power management of the whole unit. This is to save battery energy. Really, we must cosigner that all sources are not different from the battery and save their energy as we do with the battery.

IS THAT NOT REALISTIC?

Dear colleagues,

One important point that i want to shed light on it, is the use of radio access in the mobile communication system. The mobile wireless access network eats a lot of power in the base stations and the user equipment. I would like to remind you that this network works in parallel with the fixed telephone networks. The major draw back in the radio system is that it consumes more energy than the corresponding wired system because the spreading nature of the radio waves. Here one can make tremendous energy saving by further developing the antenna system to reach the virtual wireless wire. This is started now by using MIMO technology.

MIMO is a green technology.

Thank you.

You can, in addition to other techniques available, save energy in ICT by avoiding delivery of unnecessary information, avoiding unnecessary occurence and unnecessary presences of information.

Thermodynamic tell us that destruction of order (like destruction of information) will lead to minimizing energy and visa versa

If we look into power consumption in ICT. Data centres consume maximum power. It is estimated last year total power consumed by data centres around the world was greater than the power consumed in the UK.                                       

Dear @Abdelhalim, this two attached articles bring two fine case studies of energy savings in ICT.

Article An Efficient Sleeping Scheduling for Save Energy Consumption...

Conference Paper Dynamicity to Save Energy in Microrobots Reconfiguration

dearest professors

hope mthis could help

arinal

 Dear abdelhalim,

                              it is a very open question and concerns a lot of different serivces within a datacentre complex.

 first of all is the energy source,renewable of not

 then a design facilites towards NZEB where cogeneration  or  trigeneration can be considered

 then inside the building there are two main áreas, the non critical physical infrastructure, the NCPI, and then your critical infrasturcture, the IT rack equipment.

 within the NCPI path are all necessary auxillary but eseential  services;  you electrical line from your power supply throught the trafo´s the primary PDU units, the UPS and then your secondary PDU units up to your final connetion to the IT rack.

 also hanging onto the NCPI path is the requiered "cooling" system which accounts for anything up to 40% of the electrical load in a datacentre.  the concept PUEo is used to rate the datacentre energy performance and is the realtion between the total consumption of the datacentre agains the IT consumption

So there are a lot of places where you can work on to sabe energy:

 -  Your energy source

-  Recycling energy, gridding out : NZEB

- Electrical power distribution line and equipment efficiency, PDU´s.UPS´s etc..

- Cooling technology

- IT equipment usage and management, liek a car idlin, if you do not "move" turn the engine off.

-DCIM ( datacente infrasturture management)

- Tier classification and influence on system efficiency,n+ operating policy

 An interesting debate as there are a lot of áreas to study the energy savings

 regards,

Dear Colleagues and Friends from RG, Saving energy in ICT, communication and internet technologies involves, among others, improving analytical techniques and data archiving in Big Data database resources. A significant part of energy in the area of ​​ICT, communication and internet technologies is consumed by maintaining server rooms, Big Data database system databases, which are established and developed by internet technology companies as well as corporations and financial institutions developing electronic banking systems. A significant part of the energy is consumed by the databases of portals offering Internet services, i.e. e-mail, keeping file backups in the cloud. A significant part of the energy is consumed by database systems of social media portals and other internet services offered by technology companies operating on the Internet. In this connection, the key issue is the ongoing monitoring of resources collected in these Big Data database systems and the gradual, permanent removal of unnecessary, residual, unnecessary data, files, posts, emails, etc. In addition, a significant part of energy in the field of ICT, communication technologies and internet consumes accumulators of mobile devices, e.g. smartphones, vehicles and means of communion, transport such as passenger electric cars, electric trucks and others. Therefore, a new generation of batteries should be created that will charge much faster than at present. Improved batteries could also be used on a larger scale in energy based on renewable energy sources.

Best wishes

Dariusz Prokopowicz

I think the question is self explanatory with respect to Global Enery Demand . But

actual statistics of Global energy audit makes this discussion much more stronger .

A technical look at 5G energy consumption and performance

Emerging use cases and devices demand higher capacity from today’s mobile networks, leading to increasingly dense network deployments. In this post, we explore the energy saving features of 5G New Radio and how this enables operators to build denser networks, meet performance demands and maintain low 5G energy consumption...

https://www.ericsson.com/en/blog/2019/9/energy-consumption-5g-nr

By using new technology, including and information and communication technology(ICT), is increased speed of flow of the energy. Result is the totally raise of the entropy, respectively decreasing of utilizable energy. That means that energy only can be saved by slowing down its flow.

With the use of new technology like MOOCs, Moodle and even social media like WhatsApp, we can communicate more students which is not possible in normal classroom. Technology saves lots of energy. A lecture given by a teacher at one place can be delivered to other place without any difficulty.

Yes that is true, even though the energy consumed by communication and information equipment like pcs, laptops, phones, servers, routers,..etc., at a point very less but the usage of these equipment allover the world makes a very big difference. Today all the countries in our world, are at great competition with one another for development, so the usage of these devices is huge in number and leads to appreciable use of power.

Appreciate the facts given by question: "It is estimated that the energy consumption of the communication and information equipment is about five percent of the the global energy consumption which amounts to 20000 Twh."

Today there is great need for saving the power consumption from all the counties.

As a conclusion point: I would like to give a point which I see in my own country, how the power is wasted. There is great need for disciplining ourselves whenever we sue these equipment. When there are not in need or idle they have to put either switched off or shutdown. If we follow this at small points and definitely this will make the great difference in saving power all over the world. Thankyou..

An interesting article.

ICT Development and Sustainable Energy Consumption: A Perspective of Energy Productivity

The information and communication technology (ICT) is closely related to the future of global energy consumption, not only because the ICT equipment itself increasingly consumes energy, but also because it is a general-purpose technology which may affect energy use of almost all sectors. Given the controversy over the net energy-saving effect of ICT, this paper focuses on a new perspective, i.e., energy productivity, to investigate the relationship between ICT development and energy consumption...