Operations Research for Reliable and Sustainable Telecommunication Networks

互联网及与互联网相关的技术和网络正处于几个方面的深刻变革阶段。首先，社交网络和无线应用显著增加。第二，无线和有线网络中的视频应用预计在未来几年将大幅增长。这些变化对流量的性质以及网络的可靠性和性能都有重要影响，因为非常高带宽的应用程序(如高清视频或实时游戏)越来越受欢迎，并且必须与其他更传统的应用程序(如数据和语音)竞争带宽。过去，运营商对带宽消耗应用程序的每一次新飞跃的经典解决方案都是网络规模过大。此外，为了确保实时可靠性和性能，我们见证了网络元素(如服务器场和路由器)冗余的增加。然而，由于以下原因，这种趋势不再可持续：1)大多数流量正在转向无线介质，其严重的频谱限制限制了即将到来的应用程序的可用带宽。2)互联网和ICT(互联网和通信技术)的能源消耗和环境影响不再是微不足道的，如果增长得不到仔细控制，预计将呈指数级增长。

The Internet and Internet-related technologies and networks are in a stage of profound transformation on several fronts.First, there has been a remarkable proliferation of social networking and wireless applications.Second, a significant increase in Video Applications both in wireless and in wireline networks is being forecasted in the coming years. These changes have an important impact on the nature of the traffic and on network reliability and performance, as very high-bandwidth applications, such as High Definition Video or real time gaming, gain popularity and have to compete for bandwidth with other more traditional applications such as data and voice.In the past, the classical answer of Service Providers to every new leap in bandwidth consuming applications has been network over-dimensioning. Moreover, to insure real-time reliability and performance, we have witnessed the increased redundancy of network elements,such as servers farms and routers. However, such a trend is no longer sustainable for the following reasons:1) Most of the traffic is shifting to the wireless medium, with its severe spectrum limitations that limits the bandwidth available for the forthcoming applications.2) The energy consumption and environmental impact of the Internet and the ICT (Internet and Communication Technology) is no longer negligible and is expected to increase exponentially if the growth is not carefully contained.