Energy Consumption Measurements in Docker

Containerization, often referred to as lightweight virtualization, is one of the key building blocks of next-generation networks. In this paper we consider Docker, the de facto standard containerization solution, and seek to measure the power consumption it is associated with. We perform our tests with real, off-the-shelf hardware and using several heterogeneous types of load. We find that, while CPU usage represents the main contribution to the overall consumption, other aspects need to be accounted for, both within and out of Docker.