Energy consumption of telecommunication access networks

3 General approach This survey analyses the energy/power consumption of telecommunication access networks based on: • VDSL2-Vectoring • HFC with DOCSIS 3.0 • FTTH – Point-to-Point • FTTH – GPON The aim is not to generate energy consumption values for single devices of different manufacturers or normalised values per single port or user. Instead, it evaluates the overall energy consumption for each of the three access technologies at a ubiquitous rollout. Therefore, a real region is selected, which represents a typical rural to urban settlement structure in Germany. The general target is to provide a minimum of 50 Mbit/s on every connection within this region. To achieve this, every household, business unit, public institution etc. has to be physically connected to the particular access network. A 100% connection rate is required. Furthermore, each access network has to fulfil its individual technological parameters to achieve a minimum data rate per subscriber. In this survey a minimum data rate of 50 Mbit/s was chosen. 50 Mbit/s for every subscriber is a central goal of the 2018 broadband strategy of the German Federal Government. Whether this is a technologically meaningful goal remains unclear. Nevertheless, it is nothing but the goal of the current political and economic activity to build broadband in Germany. An individual set of parameters is required for each access technology. According to these two simple specifications, separate network topologies for VDSL2-Vectoring, HFC with DOCSIS 3.0 and FTTH can be determined – a simplified model is used, not taking into account the actual cable route. The network topology for VDSL2-Vectoring is based on the existing infrastructure in the chosen region. For the existing HFC network, the spatial locations of the network elements could not be obtained and FTTH networks do not exist in the chosen region. However, the HFC with DOCSIS 3.0 and FTTH networks do not suffer from length restrictions, so that the exact location of the network elements is less important. According to this, the HFC and FTTH network design uses a green field approach. The result of this topology determination is a quantitative estimation of active network elements and their secondary systems. In combination with data on the energy/power consumption of the individual network element, an overall energy/power consumption can be estimated for each access technology. This method creates a supply-related energy/power consumption. In other words: “Howmuch electrical energy is needed by every access technology to provide a minimum of 50 Mbit/s for every subscriber in the specified area?”. 10