Power Consumption and Energy Efficiency in the Internet

This article provides an overview of a network-based model of power consumption in Internet infrastructure. This model provides insight into how different parts of the Internet will contribute to network power as Internet access increase over time. The model shows that today the access network dominates the Internet's power consumption and, as access speeds grow, the core network routers will dominate power consumption. The power consumption of data centers and content distribution networks is dominated by the power consumption of data storage for material that is infrequently downloaded and by the transport of the data for material that is frequently downloaded. Based on the model several strategies to improve the energy efficiency of the Internet are presented.