Saving energy in long-reach broadband access networks: architectural approaches

While energy conservation and reach-extension technologies are being developed for broadband access networks, this article focuses on the intersection between these two topics. Specifically, it reviews several architectural enhancements that can enable energy conservation in longreach broadband access networks using methods such as turning off idle transceivers and other network elements, shedding transmission speed, and adaptively reconfiguring itself based on current traffic characteristics.