Researchers at Melbourne Centre for Energy-Efficient Telecommunications (CEET ) are working on a new technology which is aimed at improving the efficiency of Internet-connected devices.

The devices will be supported by about one billion coordinating gateways and telecommunications network.

The data processing and transmission from the devices are likely to increase energy consumption and CEET is working on new hardware which is expected to solve network efficiency issues.

CEET is planning to address the efficiency related challenges by developing new designs, protocols and hardware technologies along with the use of cloud-based processing specifications, and energy consumption models.

CEET will be joined by IP networking firm Alcatel-Lucent and Bell Labs on the programme.

According to CEET, by 2020 more than 50 billion connected devices are expected to be used across the globe, which is likely to control household items, traffic lights and building components.