Abstract
With the rapid and growing
volume of green house gas (GHG) we may soon cross a tipping point where there
may be dramatic climatic catastrophes such that governments will be forced
to order the shutdown of coal powered electrical production or mandate carbon
neutrality across all sectors of society. On the other hand, in the event
of such a development, the future Internet and Grid infrastructure may become
absolutely essential for communications and a replacement for travel and for
the delivery of critical services such as health, education, research, etc.
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) produce 2%–3% of the
world's GHG emissions through the consumption of electricity largely produced
by coal plants. This rate of GHG is expected to double in the next few years
and is clearly unsustainable. Therefore it is critical that any future Internet
and Grid infrastructure be designed not only to survive, but also be sustained,
through an age where no additional GHG emissions will be allowed. Converged
optical networks, Grid and cloud services hosted at zero carbon renewable
energy sites using Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) where each network and
computer element is represented to a user as a configurable virtual service
will allow for the deployment of what are often referred to as “follow
the sun or follow the wind” optical network and Grid architectures where
the network and Grid topology and Grid resources availability and location
are constantly changing depending on local availability states of the wind
or sun.
© 2009 IEEE
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