Reducing Energy Use: A Dual-Channel Link

Data rates and energy consumption of communication links continue to increase. We propose a new method for reducing communications energy demands by bonding two channels of different data rates to act as a single point-to-point link. In the proposed Dual-Channel, Single-Link (DCSL) system, the high-speed channel sleeps during periods of low utilization thus producing energy savings. We consider the DCSL concept at the link and application layers, develop a cost model for DCSL and evaluate the performance of a 1-10 Gb/s DCSL using a 10 Gb/s Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE) channel via simulation. The ability to trade-off performance and energy selectively is demonstrated using Poisson and self-similar bursty synthetic traffic. Results indicate that 1-10 Gb/s DCSL can lead to reductions in energy consumption and packet delay.