Bell Labs will set up a $10 million research centre at the University of Melbourne to investigate energy efficient networks and technologies.
Coined the Centre for Energy-Efficient Telecommunications (CEET), the research lab is supported by funding from the Victorian State Government and will host a team of 22 researchers to be formed over the next three years.
In a statement, the University of Melbourne’s professor Rod Tucker said the partnership with the famed Bell Labs added “significant expertise” to the university’s telco ranks.
“The centre will conduct research on a broad range of telecommunications network infrastructure elements and will focus on how those elements can be made more energy efficient,” the statement reads. “This is an important objective in light of the exponential growth in the usage of those networks that is resulting in a rapid increase in energy consumption.”
CEET research will be used to further the aims of a recently formed ICT environmental group, GreenTouch, which both the university and Bell Labs are members.
The CEET is the second significant research body to be formed at the University of Melbourne in recent times, with Tucker also heading up the Institute for a Broadband-Enabled Society (IBES).
IBES partners with many of the leading networking and telecommunications companies to explore the impacts of fast broadband, such as the National Broadband Network.