A Taxonomy of Green Information and Communication Protocols and Standards

Due to increased awareness of human’s adverse effect on the environment, many new technologies to mitigate the environmental damage are under development. Although innovative, many of these technologies are often developed in isolation and consequently incompatible with each other. From the viewpoint of Systems Engineering, this presents an enormous challenge since compatibility among different elements of a system is crucial in achieving an optimal operational state that minimizes energy consumption. Therefore, standardization in the form of protocols is a key to accomplishing the goal of green Information and Communication Technology (ICT). In this chapter, the authors examine the existing green ICT technologies and their protocols to identify both obvious and subtle strengths and weaknesses. Particularly, the authors scrutinize the interoperability of the existing green ICT protocols and provide insights on how to improve the status quo. In addition, information on emerging governing bodies of green ICT protocols is provided.