Simulation toolbox for studying energy consumption in wired networks

Networking infrastructures are considered to consume as much energy as terminal end-user equipment or datacenters. While energy consumption of wireless networks is a matter of concern since their beginning, it is not the case for wired networks as they do not rely on batteries, but on plugged equipment. Yet, facing growing consumption, energy-efficient techniques start to be implemented in wired networks. However, measuring the end-to-end energy consumption of wired networking infrastructures remains a real challenge for network operators and scientists. This article presents the ECOFEN (Energy Consumption mOdel For End-to-end Networks) framework which allows to support precise simulation of energy consumption of large-scale complex wired networks. The experimental validation shows that Ecofen provides accurate energy consumption values.