A power saving system based on energy-aware control elements in ubiquitous home network

Abstract

In this paper, we propose the system reducing the power consumption based on the energy-aware control elements (ECE). ECE refers to the minimum unit module providing a service within the single system. For example, the home gateway system provides the visitor identification service. If it is the case, the main processor, the Ethernet module, the MPEG encoding module built-in camera, and etc. are needed. We classify the main ECE, the Ethernet ECE, the MPEG encoder ECE, and etc. The home gateway system provides the service like not only the visitor identification service but also Internet service, VoIP service, IPTV service and the home automation service. This kind of services can be independently carried out and be performed together with other devices. The home gateway system can save the power consumption by activating only ECE which it is necessary according to the performed service. Also, we suggest the method for saving the power consumption by controlling only ECE required based on the communication traffic. We implement the technology monitoring the communication traffic in the home gateway system through FPGA. This FPGA monitors the communication traffic and distinguishes between the user valid packet and invalid packet. The software embedded in FPGA notifies so that the high layer application can control required ECE according to the user valid packet. We show the marvelous effect for power saving through the ECE base power saving system implementation.