The access network is a major contributor to the overall energy consumption of the communications infrastructure, and GreenTouch has determined that finding new ways to improve its energy efficiency is a top priority. FTTH is expected to double in the next five years, reaching 142 million subscribers worldwide by 2016, according to ABI Research. With Bi-PON replacing the current optical technology in use, the impact on pollution will be equivalent to taking half a million cars off the road.

Several GreenTouch member companies—imec, a world-leading research organization in nanoelectronics and nanotechnology; INRIA, a French public research institution dedicated to computer science; and Orange Labs, the research and development center of France Telecom-Orange, one of the world's leading telecommunications operators—will participate in today's global demonstration event.

The demonstration will showcase live video traffic flowing through two separate networks—a standard optical network and a Bi-PON network—both connected to a power meter that will measure energy consumption and reveal the dramatic decrease in power consumption of the Bi-PON network compared to the traditional XGPON network and the XGPON network operating in standby mode.

Bi-PON represents the next major leap in passive optical network (PON) technology. It is expected to become a necessity as electronic processing increases with future 40GPON systems. Current optical access network units discard 99 percent of all processed data without using it, while Bi-PON is built around a new protocol that significantly simplifies the electronic circuitry by using a selective data processing technique that drastically reduces power consumption.

GreenTouch has developed and demonstrated two technologies: Bi-PON, announced today, and the large-scale antenna system that was first demonstrated last year. Together, these technologies will improve energy efficiency by a factor of more than 25.
GreenTouch is also actively working on the evolution of its 25 projects and aims to secure new funding in the coming months to help the consortium achieve its goal of creating technologies that will make ICT networks 1,000 times more efficient.

Both the large-scale antenna system and Bi-PON will be demonstrated at TIA 2012: Inside the Net, which will take place from June 5-7, 2012, in Dallas, Texas, at the ICT Green Pavilion.