Power Saving Mechanism Based on Simple Moving Average for 802.3ad Link Aggregation

Abstract- In this paper, we propose a power saving mechanism based on a simple moving average of the traffic rate in 802.3ad link aggregation. Two key components comprise the proposed mechanism: (1) a negotiation protocol for both nodes connected to an 802.3ad aggregated link and (2) an algorithm to estimate an appropriate number of active links to comprise the aggregated link in accordance with the current rate of traffic outbound on the link. We present an evaluation of the characteristics of the algorithm and its performance through simulation with real traffic trace data. Our simulations demonstrate that under certain conditions the proposed algorithm is capable of reducing the average number of active links by as much as 25.4% (6.7 W out of 26.4 W).