Title: Modelling energy efficiency in distributed home environments

Authors: Helmut Hlavacs, Karin A. Hummel, Roman Weidlich, Amine M. Houyou, Hermann De Meer

Addresses: Department of Distributed and Multimedia Systems, University of Vienna, Lenaug. 2/8, 1080 Vienna, Austria. ' Department of Distributed and Multimedia Systems, University of Vienna, Lenaug. 2/8, 1080 Vienna, Austria. ' Department of Distributed and Multimedia Systems, University of Vienna, Lenaug. 2/8, 1080 Vienna, Austria. ' Siemens AG, Corporate Technology, Otto-Hahn-Ring 6, Munich 81739, Germany; Faculty of Computer Science and Mathematics, University of Passau, Innstr. 43, Passau 94032, Germany. ' Faculty of Computer Science and Mathematics, University of Passau, Innstr. 43, Passau 94032, Germany

Abstract: In this paper, we present a distributed approach for saving energy by sharing computing load in home networks. In our approach, possibly thousands of home computers may cooperate and send each other tasks which include services and applications running on a 24/7 basis. By concentrating as many tasks as possible on a small number of computers, idle computers may go asleep and thus consume almost no energy. We present the general architecture of our approach and analyse several 24/7 applications by modelling the potential energy consumption with and without application sharing, as well as the aspect of availability.

Keywords: home networks; energy efficiency; distributed computing; energy consumption; modelling; energy saving; application sharing.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCNDS.2010.031185

International Journal of Communication Networks and Distributed Systems, 2010 Vol.4 No.2, pp.161 - 182

Published online: 25 Jan 2010 *

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