Introduction

On-line services, such as social networks or cloud platforms, need ICT infrastructures with a large number of machines. To reduce energy consumption while ensuring the prescribed Quality of Service, we propose a system and method for the real-time adjustment of the operating frequencies of HW infrastructures with a large number of machines having heterogeneous functionalities.

Technical features

The invention aims at reducing the energy consumption of ICT infrastructures responsible for implementing complex on-line services, such as social networks, cloud computing platforms, etc.

The invention consists of a two-tied control scheme, adjusting in real-time the operating frequency of each physical machine.

The upper level is based on a feedback scheme preserving the quality of service (by regulating the delay between user request and service accomplishment) and sets “virtual” frequencies, i.e. independent of and unrelated from the underlying technology.

The lower level maps such virtual values on physically achievable ACPI frequencies using a performance index developed for the specific service under analysis.

Possible Applications

• Control and energy optimization systems for computational or data-storage large-scale infrastructures with strongly time varying and/or discontinuous load, such as:
  – social networks;
  – clusters of PCs;
  – cloud services.

Advantages

• Allowing the dynamic on-line adjustment of the operating frequencies of each physical machine to reduce overall energy consumption;
• Optimizing performance indexes proper of the given service.