An Entropy-Based Energy Consumption Analysis of a Network

The energy consumption by the Internet is rising at an unprecedented rate. Future networks should be able to provide the means for meeting this energy demand. Numerous researches have been carried out to understand the energy consumption level of a network. However, there are few approaches to develop a metric that indicates and analyzes the energy consumption level of a network based on its topological structure. In this paper we propose an entropy-based metric that can be applied for the evolution of energy efficiency in the future Internet. With the proposed entropy-based metric, we analyze the energy consumption levels of various networks that have different topological structures. Moreover, we demonstrate that the entropy-based metric has a positive linear relation with the energy consumption level of a network with intensive simulation studies.