The next frontier for communications networks: power management

Storage, memory, processor, and communications bandwidth are all relatively plentiful and inexpensive. However, a growing expense in the operation of computer networks is electricity usage. Estimates place devices connected to the Internet as consuming about 2%, and growing, of the total electricity produced in the USA--much of this power consumption is unnecessary. Power management is needed to reduce this large and growing energy consumption of the Internet. We see power management as the `next frontier' in research in computer networks. In this paper, we propose methods for reducing energy consumption of networked desktop computers. Using traffic characterization of university dormitory computers, we show that there is significant idle time that can be exploited for power management. However, current Ethernet adapters in desktop computers lack the capabilities needed to allow existing system power management features to be enabled. We address this problem with a proxying Ether...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2004
• Where: COMCOM
• Authors: Kenneth J. Christensen, Chamara Gunaratne, Bruce Nordman, Alan D. George
• Keywords: COMCOM 2004, Desktop Computers, Energy Consumption, Power Management