Energy Consumption of IP vs Ethernet

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Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Sähkötekniikan korkeakoulu | Master's thesis

Date

2012

Major/Subject

Tietoverkkotekniikka

Mcode

S-38

Degree programme

Language

en

Pages

[6] + 72 s.

Series

Abstract

Power or energy consumption is a very important parameter for planning and designing network elements for the future Internet. Research and development in energy consumption of network devices such as routers, switches, bridges, etc. is a major area where the industry and academia is currently focused. It is imperative that switches and routers provide a very high capacity and throughput for ever-growing user demands. Beside this high capacity they also need to be power efficient, highly reliable, and economical. So, it is necessary to develop devices that consume very low energy and at the same time serve with the highest possible capacity. This thesis presents an analysis of a compiled set of database of power consumption and networking functionalities found in datasheets and manuals of routers and switches of some major manufacturers. This thesis gives general information of energy consumption of different vendors of routers and switches and also compares their energy efficiency. Graphs representing the general trend of energy consumption of the routers and switches over the years are shown. We found greater differences in power consumption between switches and routers of same capacity or data rate. Thus, the thesis analyzes the significance of such results and urges the network planners to design energy efficient routers or lead a discussion or approach in a way to completely replace the routers with the less energy consuming switches. Moreover, it also sheds some light on the most power consuming elements and networking features of routers that could be extremely useful in re-planning and operation of energy-efficient networks. Comparisons of the routers and switches of same vendors are done and the best among them is also analyzed.

Description

Supervisor

Manner, Jukka

Keywords

Ethernet, IP, Internet, MAC addresses, routers, switches, TCP/IP, OSI, layer, power and energy consumption, energy per megabit

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