The Green Abstraction Layer: A Standard PowerManagement Interface for Next-Generation Network Devices

Abstract – The energy consumption of telecommunication networks can be reduced using dynamic power management techniques, which allow network performance to be traded off against energy consumption. Such techniques can be applied on devices by means of hardware-specific local control policies. Distributed power management across heterogeneous hardware requires a standardized representation of the capabilities of each hardware system and subsystem, to decouple distributed high-level algorithms from hardware specifics. We propose a Green Abstraction Layer (GAL), to provide such a standardized interface between the high-level algorithms and a lower level that represents the hardware and physical resources, where energy management actions are directly exerted. Since many network devices contain complex subsystems, this lower level can itself be subjected to a hierarchical decomposition. A key design constraint is for the GAL to be lightweight, so as not to incur a high energy penalty.