Environmental costs of the net

[g***@cyberdude.com]

Does playing a video locally hurt the environment less than playing that same video off of Youtube?
Note that the Internet is on *anyway*, ie. all the routers and switches and whatever are *already* on - assuming that's so, is there an environmental cost to simply transporting that *one extra* file from point A to point B?


Thanks.

[Barry Margolin]

Post by g***@cyberdude.com
Does playing a video locally hurt the environment less than playing that same
video off of Youtube?
Note that the Internet is on *anyway*, ie. all the routers and switches and
whatever are *already* on - assuming that's so, is there an environmental
cost to simply transporting that *one extra* file from point A to point B?

The number and size of routers that have to be deployed depends on the
total amount of network traffic. So if more people watch video online,
we need more routers and cables.

And modern electronic devices don't use a constant amount of power. When
they're active they use more power than when they're idle. So the more
bits a router has to transfer, the more energy it uses.

[Jorgen Grahn]

Post by g***@cyberdude.com
Does playing a video locally hurt the environment less than playing
that same video off of Youtube?
Note that the Internet is on *anyway*, ie. all the routers and
switches and whatever are *already* on - assuming that's so, is
there an environmental cost to simply transporting that *one extra*
file from point A to point B?

I think if you're really interested, it's better if you look for
research on the subject and summarize here what you find. It's an
interesting topic.

I did a quick search and found

Power Consumption and Energy Efficiency in the Internet
Kerry Hinton,
Jayant Baliga,
Michael Feng,
Robert Ayre,
Rodney S. Tucker
University of Melbourne

Abstract

This article provides an overview of a network-based model of power
consumption in Internet infrastructure. This model provides insight
into how different parts of the Internet will contribute to network
power as Internet access increase over time. The model shows that
today the access network dominates the Internet’s power consumption
and, as access speeds grow, the core network routers will dominate
power consumption. The power consumption of data centers and content
distribution networks is dominated by the power consumption of data
storage for material that is infrequently downloaded and by the
transport of the data for material that is frequently
downloaded. Based on the model several strategies to improve the
energy efficiency of the Internet are presented.

/Jorgen

[g***@cyberdude.com]

Thanks, both of you :)