Carbon impact of video streaming
Methodology and approach
3.1. Overview of the conventional approach
Characteristics
Strengths
• Utilises average transmission network energy intensity estimates derived from academic literature
9 Well understood and accepted by the industry
• Relies on an allocation approach to attribute the energy consumption of a shared network to the services that use the network • Transmission network energy consumption is allocated to streaming based on data volume transmitted for one hour of streaming • Data centre and user media devices energy consumption is allocated based on viewing duration Intended use • Organisational foot-printing for video streaming service providers • Network/system level carbon footprint estimation
9 Accounts for all energy consumption across the network when scaled to network level 9 Straightforward accounting and allocation approach Limitations X Representative of a particular network and period of time X S ensitive to characteristics of the transmission network considered for estimation. These network characteristics include network equipment efficiency, quantity of network users and data traffic X Unsuitable for estimation of the marginal carbon impact due to a change in level of service, such as a change in video quality
38
