Study Mission on Energy Efficiency
Study Mission report on energy-aware service delivery and consumption
Executive summary
For many years, the impact of information and communication technologies on the environment went relatively unnoticed. But the effects are consequential and gaining attention. DVB started a study mission on Energy-Aware service Delivery and Consumption (EADC) in September 2022 to address this topic. The objectives were to review and analyse how all relevant energy-related aspects can be taken into consideration in DVB systems. The group then identified the potential need for new or revised specifications.
The Study Mission produced this report giving an overview of what is done in the ecosystem, thanks to contributions from DVB Member delegates, exchanges with external entities or answers to a survey launched to seek more inputs from the industry. This allowed to generate a list of all ideas that could help to improve energy efficiency when using DVB technologies. This is only the beginning of the consideration of sustainability issues in the ecosystem, but it is now difficult to find a company or a SDO that is not actively engaged on this subject.
In the conclusion, it is recommended that DVB considers energy efficiency when developing new Commercial Requirements through a light touch process, using guidance and suggestions supported by reasoned argument. Proposed next steps could be to begin by taking into consideration the four identified use cases:
- Common energy consumption measurement
- Energy consumption exposure
- Energy consumption as a criterion for video source or quality selection
- Modernisation or introduction of more energy efficient technologies
Some use cases could be taken into consideration directly by existing working groups, for example in DVB-I, DVB-DASH or DVB-AVC, and other use cases will probably require the creation of a new working group, working specifically on energy efficiency as these use cases will imply transversal work between different groups – like CM-SEG for example.
In addition to these guiding principles, guidelines / whitepapers could help to support the sustainability strategies of DVB Members.
