The High-Assurance Software Laboratory (HASLab) of the School of Engineering will develop solutions that will allow Wide Area Networks (WAN) communications networks to adapt, in real time, to the availability and source of electricity, giving priority to renewable sources.
The FLEXCOMM project (Towards energy-aware communications: connecting the power grid and communication infrastructure), worth 49 thousand euros, was recently approved by the Foundation for Science and Technology and will start in January next year.
“The innovation factor of this project is the integration (and operational cooperation) between the communication and electric power distribution infrastructures,” says João Marco Silva, the HASLab researcher coordinating the project. As a result, the project will contribute to reducing the energy impact and, consequently, the environmental impact caused by the growing volume of data transported by communications networks.