Entretiens Jacques Cartier

Colloquium
Information and Communications Technologies:
Are they Green?

Thinking that Information and Communications Technologies (ICT)could have a positive contribution on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is currently in vogue: representing 2% to 5% of annual global emissions depending on the countries, they could help reducing the 98% remaining emissions. This is a rather encouraging postulate in face of global warming. However, it should be considered with caution in view of the difficulty of measuring this contribution and to anticipate unintended consequences that their implementation could generate.

Obviously, the considerable expansion of ICT throughout the world represents major environmental challenges often relegated behind their potential: energy consumption and emissions of greenhouse gases, depletion of nonrenewable resources, release of toxic substances, increased waste ...

Faced with these challenges, this conference aims to present current research, designed to significantly reduce the negative impacts of these technologies: from physical networks (to green networks?) to the application layer through the major data centers and their cooling needs ... The latest research results and prospects for breakthrough innovations will be addressed by academic researchers and industrial stakeholders. The supporting studies will also be highlighted in view of life cycle assessment and societal impacts. These elements should provide an initial response to the title question of this conference: are ICT green?

Sponsor:

Themes

Theme 1. Green ICTs: Equipment and Electronics

Chairperson: Christine Tremblay, ÉTS, Montréal, Canada

Theme 1 aims to bring together research experts dedicated to the transformation of communication networks and data through innovative approaches at the physical layer level that can reduce the carbon footprint and increase efficiency Energy ICT equipment, systems and networks.

Daniel Kilper, Alcatel Lucent, Murray Hill, USA

Physical layer networks: the verdant canopy of ICT
Charles Despins, Prompt-Quebec and ETS

Socio-economic opportunities for a carbon-focused Green ICT strategy [Slides]
Trevor J. Hall, University of Ottawa, Canada

Green Radio-over-Fibre Access Networks for e-City Environments
Azeddine Gati, Orange Labs, France Telecom, France

Optimization Models for Energy Reduction [Slides]

Theme 2. Green ICTs: Data Centers and Clouds

Chairperson: Laurent Lefèvre, INRIA & École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, France

Data centers, networks and cloud computing are among the biggest consumers of electricity. This second half-day aims to bring together experts working to meet the challenge of precisely measuring their large-scale consumption and provide energy saving solutions.

Benoit Marcoux, IBM, Montréal, Canada

Let's Build a Smarter Planet: Energy and Utilities [Slides]
James Beer, Director of Data Centre Strategy & Operations Bell Canada

Key factors to optimize performance and energy efficiency for communications networks and data centers
Daniel Leprince, EDF, France

HPC : the difficult choice between the quantity of results and energy consumption?
Jean-Marc Pierson, IRIT, Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France

Green Data Center management: from monitoring to task allocation [Slides]
Bernard Boutherin, LPSC, Grenoble, France

Should we choose the "free cooling"? What are the risks if we consume less? [Slides]

Theme 3. Smart Grids and Green networks (software and middleware)

Chairperson: Olivier Richard, Polytech'Grenoble and Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble, France

Today telecommunications networks, data centers and, more generally, electronic components are all optimized for best performance, not energy efficiency. In the third half-day, experts address the need to consider these two aspects in the design process, a profound change of perspective that is absolutely necessary to achieve sustainable development.

Bill St-Arnaud, Green Internet Consultant, Ottawa, Canada

Using ICT to "adapt" rather than "mitigate" Global Warming [Slides]
Chris Phillips, University of London, UK

Dynamic Energy Management for Wired Communication Networks [Slides]
Alberto E. García, University of Cantabria, Spain

Virtualization and Energetic Efficiency over multi-access environments [Slides]
David Hotte, CGI, Montréal, Canada

SmartGrid Proactive Operation [Slides]

Groupe Synchromedia, École de technologie supérieure, Montréal, Canada

Live Demonstration - GreenStar Network

Theme 4. Green Networks (Lifecycle and Society Aspects)

Chairperson: Françoise Berthoud, Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble, France

Theme 4 aims to bring a global perspective on the impacts of ICTs: on the one hand, with a look to all phases of life, all categories of impact (not just greenhouse gas emissions during the use) and secondly, by being attentive to the societal impacts that go beyond the strict analysis of life cycles.