OPERATE
For maximum environmental efficiency
OPERATE
for maximum environmental efficiency
Bring sustainability into your day-to-day network operations
Sustainability isn’t just something to think about when designing network expansion and modernisation. Making day-to-day network operations more efficient is also critical to deliver increased capacity, lower costs, and a smaller environmental footprint.
The latest network management technologies can significantly improve the performance of the existing network, enabling you to meet demand while lowering costs and GHG emissions.
“To maximize sustainable outcomes in network transformation, it is essential for operators to consider sustainability at every stage of the network and service lifecycle.”
—STL Partners, “Advancing Sustainability Through Network Automation,” March 2024
Three approaches to improving performance while driving sustainability
Network operations aim to deliver the best performance at the minimum possible cost. This drive for continual efficiency improvements is also a powerful force of sustainability, and operators should consider aligning their operational and sustainability investments to capitalise on efficiency synergies.
Here are three fundamental areas of opportunities to drive both operational efficiency and sustainability.
1
Ensure full network visibility
Decades of innovation have created a complex network environment with multiple technology generations, vendors, domains, and architectures coexisting.
Major performance and sustainability gains are waiting to be unlocked, but this can’t happen without full insight into the network to identify the opportunities and understand the dependencies.
With an accurate, near real-time view of physical and virtual resources, you can take the right actions to make the network more efficient. On the sustainability side, that might include:
- Identifying equipment that isn’t carrying live traffic but is still drawing power
- Pinpointing network inefficiencies, reallocating assets to reduce the need for additional resources, and minimising investments and waste
- Grooming traffic off underutilised hardware so it can be powered down
- Prioritising the decommission of obsolete equipment to accelerate emissions reductions
Federated inventory and multi-layer visualisation allow you an accurate view of the current state of your network and helps you maximise gains.
2
Improve resource utilisation and performance
Improving network resource efficiency can help deliver better performance to customers, enhancing their satisfaction and loyalty while freeing up capacity for new revenue-generating opportunities, all without increasing emissions. Getting more from existing assets means less new hardware to install, less energy to power it, fewer truck rolls to maintain it, and less waste at its end of life.
Operators have increasingly taken advantage of the deployment of AI tools for network optimisation. AIOps deployments involve the use of AI applications to optimally configure platforms, correlate events, and assure service levels. These tools go beyond generative AI (GenAI) and large language models. AI applications use discriminative, predictive, and prescriptive AI models that excel at inferring root causes, predicting issues, and recommending fixes. But GenAI has its place too, with AI assistants and agents empowering technical staff to do more, better.
There are a multitude of existing and emerging applications capable of boosting operational efficiency, and with it, ensuring better use of resources and more sustainable practices.
3
Unlock more efficiency gains with network automation
A further strategy for unlocking more performance from the network is to invest in automation. Many operators are already on a network automation journey, in pursuit of the cost savings and operational efficiencies that automation can bring.
But another good reason to embark—or continue—on the automation journey is that it can also help with sustainability goals, for example, by:
- Improving the tracking of key network sustainability metrics to drive decision-making
- Minimising field interventions that require truck rolls, reducing direct emissions
- Improving the performance and reliability of resources, reducing energy and cooling needs
- Providing richer key performance indicators (KPIs) and alarms to inform operational or design decisions
It’s possible to start small, by automating individual tasks, and progress towards a fully autonomous network. There are solutions available to help at each stage—with operational and environmental benefits to be unlocked every step of the way.
Ciena is the global leader in high-speed connectivity.
We build the world’s most adaptive networks to support exponential growth in bandwidth demand. By harnessing the power of our networking systems, components, automation software, and services, Ciena revolutionizes data transmission and network management. With unparalleled expertise and innovation, we empower our customers, partners, and communities to thrive in the AI era. For updates on Ciena, follow us on LinkedIn and X or visit the Ciena Insights webpage and Ciena website.
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