Power-aware network systems using adaptive optical path control for large-scale multi-layer service networks

The ever-growing amount of Internet traffic places a large burden on the power consumption of network systems, especially IP routers. The IP packet forwarding off-load using an optical cut-through technique has been studied for this purpose, but the total power consumption of the network should be more effectively reduced by combining this optical cut-through with power-aware network systems. This paper proposes a low power consumption technique using an adaptive optical path control and power-aware rearrangeable network systems in response to network traffic patterns and volumes. The total power-consumption can be minimized by optimizing the optical path bandwidth and packet forwarding capacities. This paper also presents some initial evaluation results on the effect of our proposal on the power consumption reduction.