Router Power Reduction through Dynamic Performance Control Based on Traffic Predictions

We investigate the possibility of reducing router power consumption through dynamic router performance control. The proposed algorithm employs a typical low pass filter and, therefore, is simple enough to implement in each related element in a router. Numerical experiments using several real Internet traffic data sets show the degree of reduction in power consumption that can be achieved by using the proposed dynamic performance control algorithm. Detailed analysis clarifies the relationships among various parameter values that include packet loss ratios and the degree of power savings. We also propose a simple method based on the leaky bucket model, which can instantaneously estimate the packet loss ratio. It is shown that this simple method yields a good approximation of the results obtained by exact packet-by-packet simulation. The simple method easily enables us to derive appropriate parameter values for the control algorithm for given traffic that may differ in different segments of the Internet. key words: router, performance control, energy efficiency