20 April 2009 - As home networks continue to expand with each new application brought to market, the ‘Green’ issue and reducing the carbon footprint has never been more pertinent.  Service providers are now moving to reduce the power consumed in their networks, including in the Home Gateways deployed in customers’ homes - and with millions of Home Gateways deployed in a large network, there is substantial scope for saving power.  This was the message from Duncan Bees, Chief Technology Officer of the Home Gateway Initiative (HGI), speaking at this year’s Green Telecom Summit at CTIA 2009 in Las Vegas. 

“Reducing the energy consumption of broadband communications equipment without obstructing the quality of service provided has been at the forefront of operators’ minds for some time,” explains Duncan

“At the HGI we are already working towards a set of industry specifications that will outline energy saving solutions for the Home Gateway (HG).  These complement the European Commission Code of Conduct (CoC) on Energy Consumption of Broadband Equipment, Version 3, which sets out the power principles and targets applicable to Home Gateways. HGI contributed heavily to the HG modularity approach adopted by the CoC and provided extensive review of the HG power targets.

“The power consumption of home gateways should follow the services being used; when fewer services are active, the power consumption should decline.  Our approach bases the allowable power consumption of the HG upon a modular analysis, the core and peripheral functions, and is designed to minimise service impacts,” added Duncan.

The HGI works closely with other Standard Developing Organisations and Fora, including ITU-T, ETNO, ETSI, and BBF, who are working on this critical topic.

Founded and launched by nine telecom operators (Belgacom, BT, Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom, KPN, TeliaSonera, NTT, Telefonica and Telecom Italia) in 2004, the HGI now has members from across the globe, representing the entire spectrum of actors in the broadband home arena.  The main tasks of the HGI are to establish home gateway-related technical and interoperability specifications and provide input to standardisation bodies.