Alcatel-Lucent’s research arm, Bell Labs, the University of Melbourne and the Victorian State Government are partnering to establish a research center in Melbourne, Australia that will be devoted to innovation in energy efficient networks and technologies. Specifically, the research will focus on the energy efficiency of network infrastructure elements. 
Both the University of Melbourne and Bell Labs are members of the GreenTouch initiative, a global, industry-wide consortium formed to achieve a dramatic improvement in energy efficiency by driving a radical redesign of communications networks.
The Victorian-based research facility, to be called the Centre for Energy-Efficient Telecommunications (CEET), will have a staff of researchers and technology experts that will build to a team of 22 during the next three years. Bell Labs and the University of Melbourne will share governance of the center which will be based at the University.
http://www.alcatel-lucent.com
http://www.greentouch.org
- In January 2010, Alcatel-Lucent’s Bell Labs introduced a consortium of leading researchers to create the technologies needed to make communications networks 1000 times more energy efficient than they are today. Specifically, the Green Touch initiative aims to develop and demonstrate fundamental technologies within five years that could lead to radical redesign of how networks are built and operated.
Researchers at Bell Labs calculate that wireless networks theoretically could be 10,000 times more energy efficient than they are today. Optical networks, in principle, could reach energy efficiency levels even lower than that. Significant efficiency gains could be possible by rethinking and improving transport, circuits, coding and protocols. Working groups will be established in each of these areas. The five year plan is to create a reference network architecture and demonstrations of the key components required to realize this improvement.
