Towards a Sustainable Internet of Sounds

The Internet of Sounds (IoS) is an emerging research area at the intersection of engineering fields and humanities including computing, communication technology, audio signal processing, acoustic monitoring, music and arts. Although this research field is expected to have beneficial impacts on society through entertainment, creativity, well-being, monitoring and security, it is paramount to be aware of the adverse impact of current technology on the environment in terms of greenhouse gases emissions, pollution and soil consumption. In this study we provide a survey of the environmental issues produced by current information and communication technology (ICT) and relate these to the use cases that the IoS envisions. On the basis of this survey, we identify some key aspects to reduce the footprint of IoS services and products and then we provide suggestions to make advancements in IoS environment-aware.