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ABSTRACT: High speed links are widely deployed in modern day computer networks to meet the ever growing needs for increasing data bandwidth. However, with the increase in the link rate, the power consumption of the network interfaces increases exponentially, compounding growing concerns about network power consumption. Fortunately, network traffic characteristics show that rapid link rates are not always required. During times of reduced network traffic, the adaptive link rate (ALR) mechanism allows link rates to be reduced with little impact on network performance. Current research has focused on policies to control when and how to change link rates, and have shown promising energy savings. However, these works have been largely simulative, and have not addressed many of the challenges involved in implementation. In this paper, we develop a hardware prototype ALR system and address real-time challenges involved in realizing such an implementation. We also identify new considerations for control policy development given current technology capabilities as well as future projections.
Local Computer Networks, 2008. LCN 2008. 33rd IEEE Conference on; 11/2008
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ABSTRACT: The aggregate power consumption of the Internet is increasing at an alarming rate, due in part to the rapid increase in the number of connected edge devices such as desktop PCs. Despite being left idle 75% of the time, 90% of PCs have their power management features disabled. Consequently, much recent research has focused on reducing power consumption of Internet edge devices. One such method for reducing PC power consumption is by augmenting the network interface card (NIC) with enhanced processing capabilities. These capabilities pave the way for green computing by allowing the PC to transition to a low-power sleep state while the NIC responds to network traffic on behalf of the PC - a technique known as power proxying. However, such a Smart-NIC (SNIC) requires specialized low-power, resource-constrained processing, and architectural features in order to realize such capabilities. In this paper, we present a NIC-based packet content inspection system for power proxying and network intrusion detection. We use a novel partitioned TCAM technique that results in 87% energy savings and a 62% lower energy-delay product than existing non-partitioned router-based techniques, thus making our technique highly suitable for SNIC-based deployment.
Computer Design, 2008. ICCD 2008. IEEE International Conference on; 11/2008
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ABSTRACT: The number of edge devices connected to the Internet is increasing at a rapid rate. To maintain network connectivity, the majority of these devices remain completely powered on when idle, wasting unnecessary energy. A novel idea to conserve energy while maintaining network connectivity is to place the computer in standby mode during idle periods and delegate the packet-handling functions to its network interface card (NIC). The NIC, acting as a liaison for the host, can proxy a variety of network protocols, increasing the standby time of the host without compromising its active connections. In this paper, we analyze the requirements of such a packet classifier and design a low-power hardware-based packet classification technique, which, compared to a software-based packet classification technique, consumes 59% less energy with a 9x speedup.
Symposium on VLSI, 2008. ISVLSI '08. IEEE Computer Society Annual; 05/2008
