Keynote Presentation

A Decade of Green Radio and the Path to "Net Zero" in Future Wireless Networks

Abstract: It has been over a decade since several major research projects, such as the UK Green Radio, EU EARTH and GreenTouch projects, initiated large scale investigations into energy efficient wireless networking. Moving forward, the recent Climate Change Conference in Glasgow (COP26) has started to flesh out the details of meeting the ambitious goals of the 2015 Paris (COP22) agreement. This talk reflects on the achievements of energy efficient wireless research to date in mitigating carbon emissions. It explores the industrial challenges ahead with the deployment of fifth generation (5G) wireless technologies and discusses potential opportunities for reducing carbon emissions in the next decade. Major research challenges that still face the wireless community are also described including the development of sixth generation (6G) wireless technologies.

Professor Timothy O’Farrell currently holds a Chair in Wireless Communications at the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Sheffield, UK. He specializes in the design of energy efficient wireless networks, direct digitisation in multiband software defined radios, and waveform design for wireless communication systems. To date, he has published over 330 papers and led 24 research projects on these topics. Professor O'Farrell was the Academic Coordinator of the mVCE Green Radio project (2009-12); the General Chair of the 5th International Workshop on Next Generation Green Wireless Networks (Next-GWiN 2018); and director of the UK Research Strategy Community Organisation in Communications, Mobile Computing and Networking (CommNet2, 2015-19). He is a director of the mVCE (mobilevce.com); a member of the UK5G Climate and Environment Working Group (uk5g.org) and a member of the DCMS College of Experts (gov.uk/dcms).