Green Telecom Part XI: Softswitch energy savings

According to an environmental benefits study conducted by Network Strategy Partners, replacing legacy central-office switches with MetaSwitch softswitches or softswitches and media gateways can yield energy savings of up to 91%.

Michael Kennedy, analyst with Network Strategy Partners, compared the heating and cooling requirements for small Class 5 switches of up to 12,000 lines with those of a MetaSwitch VP2510 and found the energy savings was between 81% and 90%, for a carbon dioxide savings equivalent to heating 11 average homes for a year. Kennedy compared MetaSwitch’s distributed softswitch solution, using its Calling Agent 9000 and Media Gateway 3510, to a legacy distributed solution using a circuit switch and remote switching centers and found the energy savings was 60%, for a carbon savings equivalent to driving a car 1.6 million miles.

“This is a significant savings,” Kennedy said. “Plus, the softswitch solution uses one-twentieth of the floor space of a circuit switch.”

Even in tough times, telecom service providers are responding to the opportunity to save a significant amount of money, said Martin Taylor, vice president of product strategy. “I think they see a win-win here in that both their energy bill can be reduced and they can represent themselves to customers as providing a greener phone service. In making the business case for replacing a legacy switch, power savings is a major factor and may be the decisive factor. Investment capital may be at a premium right now, but if there is a rock-solid business case based on savings in energy bills rather than a soft business case based on potential revenues, I think [chief financial officers] do respond.”

The opportunity exists for telecom service providers to transform their CO buildings, many of which are located in prime downtown areas, into office space by reusing the space once occupied by bulkier switching gear, Kennedy said. “We’ve seen this before, even when companies moved from electromechanical switches to electronic ones,” he said.

There is also substantial savings in moving to a converged network from one which provides voice on a separate circuit-switched, SONET TDM network, overlaid on the data IP infrastructure that also contains legacy data gear such as ATM, Kennedy said. “Moving to a converged IP network enables service providers to eliminate a lot of other equipment, such as T-1 cross-connects,” he said.

According to Kennedy’s study, MetaSwitch also has an edge in energy savings over first-generation softswitches from some of its competition, although specific competitors were not named. Kennedy said the small-switch solution from MetaSwitch was 31% more energy-efficient than competitors’, and the distributed switch solution was 14% more efficient.

“These softswitches have many more features than the equivalent legacy switches we compared them against,” Kennedy said. “It is unusual to have more features and use less energy.” With laptops and cellphones, for example, more features require longer lasting batteries, he said.

Previously: Part One of this series looks at AT&T’s green initiatives, while Part Two reports Callis Communications’ effort to reduce power used by voice-over-IP gear. Part Three reports on iControl’s efforts to help service providers leverage home security system sales to also promote home automation and energy savings. Part Four explores new technology from Telco Systems that uses solar power for data centers. Part Five looks at how Emerson Network Power is taking a comprehensive approach to reducing power consumption by its wireline and wireless customers. Part Six examines Verizon Business’ efforts to help its enterprise customers cut their energy consumption. Part Seven looks at Verizon’s internal efforts to build a greener network. Part Eight examines Qwest’s efforts to annually measure energy consumption. Part Nine tracks data center power consumption. Part Ten looked a Nortel’s pioneering efforts in telework.