Corning: The Green Advantage of 10G Optical Fiber

As the "Green" fad continues, more and more 'quantifiable' advantages are being recognized. In this White Paper, Corning discusses these advantages of 10G Optical Fiber in further detail.

Post originated from this Corning White Paper.

What is the definition of “Green?”

“Green.” The word invokes natural images of deep forests, sprawling oak trees and financial images of dollar bills. The topic of green has been gaining momentum across international, commercial and industrial segments as global warming and greenhouse gas effects hit headlines. Green is succinctly quantified in financial terms, but the definition is more evasive when referring to other areas. Each segment and sub-segment is attempting to define green through measures appropriate to their materials and operations.

Examples include the U.S. Green Building Council’s institution of a third-party certification program (LEED®) in the 1990s establishing building metrics around water usage, energy usage, site disturbance, material consumption and environmental air quality. Energy Star is an EPA-driven initiative with the goal of reducing energy consumption and pollution in commercial buildings, homes and electronics through product-specific specifications.

Specific to the data center segment of the telecommunications industry, the green metric is reduction in energy consumption and ultimately CO2 emission reduction. The Green Grid is a global consortium dedicated to improving energy efficiency in data centers and business computing systems. One work stream of this group is to define metrics for energy efficiency improvements. A recent paper by The Green Grid identifies one measure, Data Center Energy Productivity (DCeP), being equivalent to the “useful work produced” divided by the total data center energy consumed producing the work. At 10G, optical fiber can play a significant role in the denominator of the equation vs. 10G copper by reducing network operational and cooling energy.