Carbon footprint of next generation fixed networks

For the first time a full/streamlined life cycle assessment (LCA) case study was performed to estimate the carbon footprint of three types of FTTx networks deployed in Italy. The functional unit is “broadband network in an Italian urban dense area for use by 10,000 homes during one year” The worst case results show that FTTB, FTTCab, and FTTH all emit around 1,000–1,300 ton CO2e/year dominated by the use stage. The LCA based carbon footprint is 30–70% higher than the carbon footprint based only on the use of electricity. As far as overall energy usage reduction, the customer premise equipment (CPE) has the largest opportunity for improvement. A sensitivity analysis shows that it might be possible to reduce the FTTH score by 80% by assuming 4 hours full power mode/20 hours low power mode for the CPE, and use existing infrastructure in deployment. Moreover, FTTH has considerably better bitrate based carbon efficiency than FTTCab and FTTB. The parameterized study could be expanded to included service level functions.