SUBSEA SUSTAINABLE SUBSEA NETWORKS ATTENDS SUBMARINE NETWORKS WORLD 2024 BY ELLA HERBERT AND MICHAEL BRAND
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ubsea cable leaders from around the globe gather in Singapore each year at Submarine Networks World, an annual event dedicated to the industry. Key industry members come together to discuss crucial issues impacting the sector — this year including AI, cable security and protection, cable maintenance, and new technologies. This conference provides a rare opportunity to meet some of the most important figures in the subsea industry in person. Therefore, you can imagine our excitement when we were given the chance to represent Sustainable Subsea Networks, an initiative of the SubOptic Foundation, and present on the topic of PUE at the Cable Landing Station alongside our colleague Hesham Youssef from Telecom Egypt. As undergraduate students, our journey into the industry has been largely shaped by observing discussions at industry conferences. Starting at the Pacific Telecommunications Council (PTC) Conference in January of 2024, we were amazed by the scale of the discussions happening — it felt as if a significant change in the digital infrastructure space was happening before our eyes. The ability to be part of that change by presenting on energy efficiency metrics at the
10 SUBMARINE TELECOMS FORUM MAGAZINE
Cable Landing Station felt surreal. Our invitation to the conference also demonstrates the eagerness for young voices in the industry. Through our experience at the conference, we had the opportunity to learn from the panels and presentations given by an array of speakers on hot topics and trends. As for the other conferences we have attended, we tried to absorb as much information as we could and learn more about the industry as a whole, seeking out advice and information that could contribute to our mission of making digital infrastructure more sustainable. In this month’s column, we will provide an overview of our presentation at SNW. We will also share our key sustainability-related takeaways
which include a significant focus on carbon emissions, a surge in discussions about the power used for AI and its implications for sustainability, and the growing need for industry and policymaker alignment.
SPEAKING TO AN INDUSTRY AUDIENCE: PUE AT THE CABLE LANDING STATION
At SNW, our team tackled the topic of sustainability metrics at the Cable Landing Station, specifically focusing on PUE. First, we gave a brief overview of the paradigm between the necessity of metrics to quantity sustainability progress and the oversimplification that metrics can cause which hinders sustainability goals. Then, we elaborated on this discussion by bringing up one of