Energy efficiency gains are failing to keep pace with the Internet’s rapid rate of expansion, meaning that global web use is consuming an increasing share energy, warns a new perspective published in the journal Science.
Noting that the world’s data centers already consume 270 terawatt hours and Internet traffic volume is doubling every three years, Diego Reforgiato Recupero of the University of Catania argues for prioritizing energy efficiency in the design of devices, networks, data centers, and software development.
“As the Internet evolves, it is apparent that energy efficiency needs to be addressed,” he writes.
Recupero highlights two approaches for improving efficiency: smart standby and dynamic frequency scaling or CPU throttling.
-
“The former will allow
unused parts of a network
device to be put into very
low power states, where only
very basic functionalities
are performed. This method
is key for reducing energy
consumption because it will
allow switching some portion of the network to a sleep
mode in a smart and effective way.”
Dynamic frequency scal-
ing allows us to trade off the
energy consumption and processing capacity of internal
blocks while satisfying the
current traffic load and quality of service constraints.
This ensures that when the system is under partial load, parts of it can be
throttled to decrease the power consumption
without a reduction of overall performance.
 Packet service times and power consumption when no green technologies are applied, with only smart standby, with only dynamic frequency scaling, and with both smart standby and dynamic frequency scaling. Caption and image courtesy of Recupero 2013. |
The Italian computer scientist says the next generation of network devices will be “smarter” and “greener”, synchronizing their energy-aware capabilities and better controlling high temperatures that drive up the need for energy intensive cooling systems. He adds that engineers are increasingly using green indicators in designing networks.
Recupero concludes by noting that more efficient design pays dividends beyond environmental gains.
“The fundamental problem of greening the
Internet is to strike a fine balance between the
demands of performance and the limitations
of energy usage,” he writes. “New research initiatives in
energy optimization have revealed several
aspects of the Internet that can be streamlined. Addressing the issues of energy efficiency will allow us to draw deeper conclusions on how new network systems can be
smarter and more effective.”
CITATION: Diego Reforgiato Recupero. Toward a Green Internet. Science Mar 28, 2013. 10.1126/science.1235623
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