| With increasing energy consumption of the Internet, it is now imperative to design and develop energy-efficient next-generation network architectures and protocols. This dissertation presents novel and innovative techniques and methods for developing energy-efficient next generation telecom networks, both in core and access networking domains.;This dissertation begins with an introduction to energy efficiency in telecom networks and its importance for sustainable network development, along with the compilation of research contributions. Then, a comprehensive literature review on the energy efficiency research in telecom optical networks is presented in Chapter 2. This survey works as the outline of various research aspects in telecom networks' energy efficiency and provides a comparison of various energy-efficiency methods.;In Chapter 3, we present a working prototype for Wireless-Optical Broadband Access Network (WOBAN), a next-generation, cost- and energy- efficient access network architecture. This prototype is flexible to incorporate new technologies and protocols and facilitates researchers to develop, build, and test their protocols for future broadband access networks. We have experimented with several cutting-edge, media-rich applications on top of our WOBAN prototype. This prototype also enables researchers to examine the impact of energy-saving mechanisms on WOBAN's performance.;Next, we focus on developing energy-efficient network protocols and architectures. We present models and algorithms to build an energy-efficient WOBAN in Chapter 4. Future-proof access technologies should be energy efficient. The techniques developed in Chapter 4 should enable a "green" deployment of WOBAN.;In Chapter 5, we show design models for developing energy-efficient Mixed-Line-Rate (MLR) optical networks. In an MLR network, a single link can carry various line-rate signals. We examine and analyze different energy-efficient MLR network architectures and compare the energy efficiency of MLR networks with SLR networks (where a single link carries same line-rate signals). Finally, concluding remarks and future research directions are presented in Chapter 6.;In summary, this dissertation makes important contributions to the networking-research knowledge base by presenting new methods, algorithms, and models to design energy-efficient next-generation networks. |
