Modelling of staged routing for reduced carbon footprints of large server clusters

Kist, Alexander A. (2011) Modelling of staged routing for reduced carbon footprints of large server clusters. International Journal of Communication Networks and Distributed Systems, 6 (1). pp. 28-44. ISSN 1754-3916

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Abstract

Online services that rely on large scale server systems have become major energy users. These systems are generally dimensioned for peak loads and therefore have very low average utilisation, often around 20-30%. This paper presents a mathematical performance analysis of a simple routing mechanism that uses staged overflow routing to assign requests to servers. The technique relies on a router, in conjunction with a server daemon. Idle servers are suspended; and suspended systems are returned to an active state by the Wake-on-LAN function. The number of active servers is proportional to the overall system utilisation and leads to a load proportional carbon footprint. Performance models are developed and used to analyse the proposed mechanism. A potential system design is briefly discussed. It is concluded that substantial power savings are possible using overflow routing; however, there is also significant effects on user performance as a result of the higher server utilisation.

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Item Type:	Article (Commonwealth Reporting Category C)
Refereed:	Yes
Item Status:	Live Archive
Additional Information:	Permanent restricted access to published version due to publisher's copyright restrictions.
Faculty / Department / School:	Historic - Faculty of Engineering and Surveying - Department of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering
Date Deposited:	14 Feb 2011 05:40
Last Modified:	04 Mar 2015 23:17
Uncontrolled Keywords:	carbon footprint; energy efficient computing; load proportional power consumption; performance modelling; energy efficiency; energy consumption; overflow routing
Fields of Research :	10 Technology > 1005 Communications Technologies > 100503 Computer Communications Networks 08 Information and Computing Sciences > 0806 Information Systems > 080604 Database Management 09 Engineering > 0906 Electrical and Electronic Engineering > 090607 Power and Energy Systems Engineering (excl. Renewable Power)
Socio-Economic Objective:	E Expanding Knowledge > 97 Expanding Knowledge > 970109 Expanding Knowledge in Engineering
Identification Number or DOI:	doi: 10.1504/IJCNDS.2011.037326
URI:	http://eprints.usq.edu.au/id/eprint/18317

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