Publications

This foundational paper from the Greening of Streaming LanguageLab explores the often-overlooked role of power factor in assessing the energy efficiency of streaming infrastructure. It uncovers how misleading device power readings can mask significantly higher energy generation needs due to inefficiencies in power conversion and distribution. By highlighting challenges in measurement and calling for standardised methodologies, the document aims to reshape industry practices and inform more accurate, impactful sustainability efforts.

Here is the table of contents of this WG8 document describing one of our core projects to create a real-time energy measurement platform for streaming:

• Project Overview

• Goal

• Key Features and Current Capabilities

• Progress and Scalability Goals

• Vision for Extending Collaboration

  • ISPs and Network Providers

  • Streamers

  • CDN Operators

• Sample Use Cases and Benefits

• Licensing and Partnership Opportunities

• Roadmap

• No Greenwashing

• Call to Action

• Annexes: Device Support List and Authors

This paper examines the critical distinction between Attributional (ALCA) and Consequential (CLCA) Life Cycle Assessment approaches in the context of streaming media sustainability. 

While both approaches aim to assess environmental impact, they serve fundamentally different purposes and can lead to dramatically different conclusions. ALCA provides a static snapshot of how environmental impacts are distributed among current activities, while CLCA examines how systems respond to changes. 

We demonstrate why this distinction matters for streaming media sustainability through industry examples, mathematical models, and practical case studies. We explore how conflating these approaches can lead to misleading conclusions and ineffective actions, particularly in complex systems like content delivery networks and telecommunications infrastructure. 

Our analysis reveals that while ALCA remains useful for regulatory compliance and reporting, CLCA becomes essential for driving meaningful environmental improvements in streaming media systems. This understanding is crucial for network engineers, system architects, and sustainability teams working to reduce the environmental impact of streaming services. 

The paper concludes with practical recommendations for moving the industry toward more effective environmental assessment and improvement strategies.

Keywords: Sustainability, Streaming Media, Life Cycle Assessment, Environmental Impact, Network Infrastructure, Content Delivery Networks

This paper is a review of WG8's initial tests of our new measurement platform. We are very excited to release this paper, since it is the first time we have attempted some 'engineering for sustainability' ourselves.

The overall aim of WG8 is to develop an energy measurement model that correlates streaming and energy consumption in a repeatable, scalable and near real-time process. This has been done in many labs settings around the world, we believe this is a pioneering (if not 'world-first') attempt to ambitiously build a platform for measuring Consumer Premises Equipment energy in real-world settings including the 'home'. 

The paper outlines a record and review of our very first hackathons where WG8 members started to bring the system live, and coordinate some very initial tests of the working processes.

Note: Do not expect data sets and analysis at this stage! We are developing the platform, and building out a clear, and transparent picture of the model, precisely to hear from the industry any feedback they may have as we go. The aim is to develop a model that will in turn produce data that is a usable and agreeable reference for the industry. Our model is designed to produce non-vendor specific frame showing how the variation in core, common architectural processes in software, hardware and network architecture interplay with energy supply.

Further hackathons and review papers will be published in due course as we build out the complete model to help us test not only CPE energy consumption but by collaboration across other working groups - particularly WG6 and WG4 - we will now be building out a complete  energy consumption picture of live streaming workflows. Expect these further papers to appear relatively regularly through the rest of 2024.

The second output from Language Lab focusses on the terms "Power off, Sleep and Standby' - again these are terms we all use. They relate directly to energy consumption in our minds and so relate to sustainability too. However the use of these terms varies immensely through the supply chain. In this paper we talk about responses from a survey of engineers we carried out. We covered discussions about other groups and SDOs use of these terms and at the end of the paper explore harmonisation with some of these.

The first output from Language Lab was created in response to a request from the Streaming Video Technology Alliance to help them develop their own 'glossary of terms' to include issues relating to streaming.  Focussing on the term "WATTS" this short paper will open thinking into what is seemingly a mundane terms in common use, but when looked at in detail in different contexts - even in our own sector - the term has a wide range of interpretations.

To introduce the Low Energy Sustainable Streaming Accord we presented this paper to the ACM's 'Mile-High Video' Conference in Denver in May 2023. It provides an overview of the organisation and the project.

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