On energy consumption of switch-centric data center networks

Data center network (DCN) is the core of cloud computing and accounts for 40% energy spend when compared to cooling system, power distribution and conversion of the whole data center (DC) facility. It is essential to reduce the energy consumption of DCN to esnure energy-efficient (green) data center can be achieved. An analysis of DC performance and efficiency emphasizing the effect of bandwidth provisioning and throughput on energy proportionality of two most common switch-centric DCN topologies: three-tier (3T) and fat tree (FT) based on the amount of actual energy that is turned into computing power are presented. Energy consumption of switch-centric DCNs by realistic simulations is analyzed using GreenCloud simulator. Power related metrics were derived and adapted for the information technology equipment (ITE) processes within the DCN. These metrics are acknowledged as subset of the major metrics of power usage effectiveness (PUE) and data center infrastructure efficiency (DCIE), known to DCs. This study suggests that despite in overall FT consumes more energy, it spends less energy for transmission of a single bit of information, outperforming 3T.