On January 23rd 2024, an ETSI webinar "How can all-optical networks contribute to carbon transition?", was presented by ETSI ISG F5G, to disseminate the ETSI White Paper "All-optical network facilitates the Carbon Shift" published in November 2023.

This White Paper was developed by ISG F5G to provides an overview of an all-optical network and the recent developments in optical technologies, and highlights the role of all-optical networks as a key ICT enabler to meet the UN sustainability goals.

In this webinar, there were four speakers, that included the co-editors / contributors of the White Paper, who shared their viewpoints on green all-optical networks:

• Mr. Jean-Luc Lemmens, Co-Editor, CEO IDATE
• Dr. Olivier Ferveur, F5G Acting-Chair ISG F5G, Post Luxembourg
• Dr. Xiangkun Man, Co-Editor, China Unicom
• Dr. Marcus Brunner, Liaison Officer in ISG F5G, Huawei

 In Jean-Luc’s presentation, he emphasised that, with the emergence of new services and the increase of Internet speed, the challenge of reducing carbon footprint becomes significantly harder, and an all-fibre network will play an important role in dealing with the carbon footprint challenge as it consumes much less energy than any other technologies.

In Olivier’s presentation, he made a comparison of the network power consumption between Fibre Access Network (FAN) and Copper Access Network (CAN) from POST Luxembourg perspective, and concluded that technology transition from CAN to FAN significantly reduces carbon generation.

In Xiangkun’s presentation, he shared China Unicom's carbon emission reduction targets for 2024~2026, and introduced the technology objective to migrate from SDH/MSTP to DC-oriented large-capacity OTN, to reduce the cost and power consumption.

In Marcus’s presentation, he proposed migrating to fibre/optical network by moving optical network to the edge, and introduced a simplified all-optical network architecture in order to save CO2 emission by information communications.

In conclusion, deploying a network with cutting-edge fibre optic technologies can satisfy the need for telecoms operators to reduce their carbon footprint, allowing for a net carbon emission that tends to zero, while providing high-speed, low-latency and high reliability communication connectivity.