Distributed and Load Adaptive Energy Management Algorithm for Ethernet Green Routers

The existing Ethernet networks are designed with high redundancy and over-dimensioning so they can provide reliable services during peak traffic demand periods. However, this has increased the total energy consumption and operational cost. In this paper, we propose an energy saving algorithm (ESA) to reduce the energy consumption of green routers by considering the buffer status and the traffic load. We develop a Network Simulator, version 2, (NS-2)–based simulation model for ESA to evaluate its performance with respect to real traffic traces. Performance bounds of the proposed algorithm are derived. Numerical evaluations are conducted to verify the accuracy of the simulation model against derived bounds. Performance evaluations demonstrate that the proposed algorithm outperforms candidate algorithms, thereby providing greater energy savings with an acceptable packet delay and loss. We show that the introduced delay is bounded by an upper bound that is slightly larger than half of the sleep timer. Furthermore, performance comparisons are extensive and detailed, thus providing insights into the performance of different energy saving functions considered by the candidate algorithms.