Green ICT for sustainability: A holistic approach

In the last three decades, the information and communication technology (ICT) sector has been growing very fast. There is no such example in human history that development of a technology has changed our way of life in such a rapid and fundamental manner. ICT has become an integral part of our everyday life including social interactions, business processes, technology and ecology. Due to the fact that ICT not only promises enormous potentials but also carries risks, it is extremely important to carefully evaluate and assess ICT systems and applications regarding their potential for improving the global energy productivity in a sustainable manner. This paper concentrates on technologies and methods for achieving high-performance and energy-efficient communication networks. Main achievements and trends towards highly energy-efficient network infrastructure are briefly reviewed. A novel holistic framework able to efficiently treat energy, entropy, and exergy flows in heterogeneous systems through combining thermodynamic and communication approaches is presented.