Taxonomy of Dynamic Power Saving Techniques in Fixed Broadband Networks

Energy awareness in wired networks has become a major trend, triggered by increasing energy prices and environmental concern. However, power management solutions can result in degraded network performance if power saving mode exit latencies are too high. This paper reviews the relevant technologies and their temporal behavior on subsystem-, system-, and network levels. To this end, approaches are categorized into adaptive link rate, sleeping, and energy-aware data/traffic control techniques. In a second step, corresponding switching time vs. capacity characteristics are developed. Different network element switching strategies are considered, namely serial and parallel switching. The derived models are validated by an in-depth analysis of the activation behavior of a current generation network element.