Efforts underway to deliver more energy-efficient fiber networks

Fiber service providers have been given a boost in their pursuit of more energy-efficient networks that can unlock significant power savings thanks to a new project launched by Broadband Forum. The project will seek to lower energy consumption when accessing the internet. The project, which is set to publish its specification in Summer 2025, will encourage the development of technologies that satisfy the power-saving requirements, test plan, and data model it sets out. A key focus is the development of power-saving functionality of Optical Network Units (ONUs) and Optical Line Terminals (OLTs). Even though fiber-to-the-home networks offer improved energy efficiency compared to legacy copper networks, ONUs still typically consume a substantial amount of power, when active and even when idle, which can cause power leakages.