ICT: A Big Energy Consumer

Piet Demeester, Ghent University

Abstract

Computers, televisions, internet, mobile phones and many more information and communication technologies (ICT) and devices have become an essential part of our lives. A major challenge for the coming decades is the operation of all this ICT equipment in a sustainable way. Today the operation of ICT equipment is responsible for about 2% of the total energy consumption worldwide, not including the energy consumption during the manufacturing and the disposal phase. Effort in different directions started to reduce this energy footprint of ICT. Examples are energy efficient servers and cooling solutions, advanced (optical and wireless) networking technologies, energy optimized content and application management, etc. Of course ICT is also an enabler against the depletion of natural resources and global warming (e.g. teleconferencing, building automation, intelligent transport systems, process control and many more). This talk will primarily focus on the energy consumption of ICT.

Curriculum Vitae

Dr. Piet Demeester received his Ph.D. degree (1988) at Ghent University, where he became professor in 1993. He is heading a research group with over 100 members (www.ibcn.intec.ugent.be). His current research interests include: multilayer networks, Quality of Service (QoS), mobile and sensor networks, access networks, grid computing, energy efficient ICT, distributed software, network and service management, techno-economics and applications. He is co-author of over 700 publications in international journals or conference proceedings and received multiple scientific awards. He is member of the management board of IBBT