As our sister service, Rethink TV, found when compiling its recent sustainability report, attributing energy consumption is a highly controversial topic that will attract critics regardless of the approach. The report found that increased over-the-top viewing was ramping up energy demand across the industry, but the degree to which this is true does depend on many factors, such as whether WiFi access points (APs) are assumed to be always-on. A more fundamental question is how far does a rise or fall in Internet traffic affect the power consumption of a network? Starting with WiFi APs, it seems that these devices barely register a difference in traffic. One 2009 paper from Polytechnique Montreal finds that while power consumption does increase with…