By Joseph Waring
BT hails efficiency gains as data traffic soars
BT Global Head of Digital Sustainability, Sarwar Khan, warned during ongoing efforts to replace inefficient legacy equipment with new kit generally virtualised in the cloud, soaring data demand could mean a continued spike in energy use.
The executive told MWC Daily News the grid isn’t decarbonising fast enough to keep up.
Khan noted from the ground up BT is “rearchitecting its networks”, looking to deploy equipment and devices with in-built intelligence which can be configured for optimisation depending on a number of factors, such as traffic.
He added it is deploying Ericsson’s latest ultra-lightweight Massive MIMO radio technology, which reduces energy consumption by up to 40 per cent compared with the previous generation while delivering improved 5G network performance.
“We’ll have this technology added to around 1,000 sites over the coming months.”
BT also is testing several liquid cooling technologies that could substantially improve energy consumption and efficiency metrics in its networks and IT infrastructure.
Claiming an industry first, Khan said BT has trialled a precision immersion system of a network switch from Iceotope Technologies and a Juniper QFX network switch, which is used in existing network cloud architecture.
The operator expects several different cooling options could eventually be deployed, depending on specific location and operational requirements. “The trials aim to establish which solutions are optimal for each scenario, and the extent of potential energy savings.”
Khan is speaking on the Prioritising Purpose Driven Networks session on Wednesday at 2.45pm in Hall 6 Stage B.