Energy Limitations on Optical

Data Transport and Switching

Rod Tucker
University of Melbourne
 Summary

 Top-down estimate of energy consumption of the Internet

- Projections of current trends (BAU)
- Switches and routers
- Optical transport

 Bottom-up estimate
- Based on theoretical and practical lower bounds
- Transport energy
- Switching energy
- Network energy

 Putting the GreenTouch factor of 1000 into context

 Top-Down Analysis
100 2010 Data

10 Sub-wavelength Wavelength
Energy per bit (nJ)

0.1

0.01

0.001
Core Ethernet WDM PIC FEC Optical MEMS
Router Switch Tx/Rx Tx/Rx Chip Amp OXC

OLT: 50 nJ/b
DSL Modem: 500 nJ/b
Set-top Box: 1000 nJ/b
HD IPTV: 10,000 nJ/b
 Network Energy Model
Tier 1 Network
Core Network
Metro/Edge Network
Access Network
Fiber Broadband
Core Router Network DSLAM
Gateways Ethernet Cu DSL
Switch

Edge Cabinet Fiber

Routers OLT FTTP
Splitter

Cabinet Cu
OLT
FTTN

ONU DSLAM

Server
Data Server
Center Storage
Storage

Video Distribution Network

 Efficiency Trends – Transport Systems

Transport Energy/Bit/1000-km (J)

TAT-1
10 -3 TAT-3

TAT-5 TAT-8
TAT-10
10 - 6 TAT-11
TAT-9
20 % p.a. TAT-12/13

10 -9 WDM terrestrial

10 -12
1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020 2040
Year
20% p.a. efficiency improvement in routers (Neilson, JSTQE, 2006)
13% p.a. efficiency improvement in routers (Tamm, BLTJ, 2010)
15% p.a. efficiency improvements in transport (Han, IEEE Comms. Mag. 2010)
 Top-Down Analysis
100 100
Total (using 2010 Technology)

Average Access Rate (Mb/s)

10
Energy per bit (mJ)

Routers 10
and switches
Total (15% p.a.
1.0 improvements)

1
PON
0.1
Transport

40% p.a. Access Rate Growth

0.01 0.1
2010 2015 2020 2025
Year
 Global Network Energy Consumption
1012
Total (using 2010 Technology)
Total Network Power Consumption (W)

Total (15% p.a. efficiency

1011 improvements)

1010 Routers PON

and switches
Transport
109
40% p.a. Access Rate Growth
10% p.a. Growth in user numbers
108
2010 2015 2020 2025
Year
1.5 billion users
Global electricity consumption (2011) = 2 x 1012 W
 Summary

 Top-down estimate of energy consumption of the Internet

- Projections of current trends
- Switches and routers
- Optical transport

 Bottom-up estimate
- Based on theoretical and practical lower bounds
- Transport energy
- Switching energy
- Network energy

 Putting the GreenTouch factor of 1000 into context

 Lower Limit on Optical Transport Energy
Stage 1 Stage m
PEncode PTX PRX PDecode
PAMP PAMP

Encode TX a g a g RX Decode

Lstage

a Lstage
PAMP SNRbit m2e h
Total Amplifier
E AMP  Amplifier
Energy per Bit Br  AMP Efficiency

Total TX/RX PEncode  PTX  PRX  PDecode

Energy per Bit
ETX / RX  Dominates
Br
Bit Rate

R. S. Tucker, "Green optical communications - Part I:

Energy limitations in transport," JSTQE, March/April 2011.
 Optical Transmitter
PMUX Pdriver Pdriver

Driver Driver
PLaser

Data Zmod Zmod

In MUX Modulator
Zmod Zmod

Driver Driver

Pdriver Pdriver
1
Lumped modulator E 2
CmodVmod
Cmod 2
= or 2 ~ 1 pJ
Zmod Vmod
Distributed modulator E
50 Ω 50 Br
 Lower Limit on Transport Energy per Bit
1.0
Total Amplifier Energy, EAMP (pJ/bit)

0.8

TX/RX
0.6
OOK
0.4
2000-km total reach DBPSK

0.2
 AMP  100%
Shannon bound
for SE = 1 b/s/Hz

0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180
Amplifier Spacing, Lstage (km)
 Shannon Bound
10
Shannon Bound
Spectral Efficiency, SE (b/s/Hz)

1 X X

BPSK @ 10-9 BER OOK @ 10-9 BER

Coding/decoding → increased CMOS energy

Advanced modulation → increased TX/RX consumption

increased SNR, Eamp
0.1
-2 0 5 10 15 20
Signal to Noise Ratio per Bit, SNRbit (dB)

Efficiency Energy per Bit

 Energy per Bit per 1000-km

TAT-1
10 -3 TAT-3
Energy/Bit/1000-km (J)

TAT-5 TAT-8
TAT-10
10 - 6 TAT-11
TAT-9
Etotal (Top down)
TAT-12/13

10 -9 WDM terrestrial

Emin 103
10 -12 (Bottom up)

1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020 2040

Year
 Loss/Efficiencies and Energy Overheads
ETotal
Laser efficiency,
system penalties,
system margins,
etc Emin
E function  Eoverheads
 function
Loss,
Inefficiencies
Overheads
Emin Emin Management
 102  104 and control,
ETotal Key interconnects,
Function power supplies,
Subsystem
etc.

Key Conclusion:

Minimizing Emin is not necessarily the best strategy for minimizing ETotal
 Network Energy
Stage 1
Transport Transport Stage s

Switch Switch Switch

Switch

Access Network
User Ports

Access Network

Switch Switch
 Switching Energy
Buser Bcore Buser

Bcore Bcore
X1 103 X 103 103 X 103 1X
Buser Buser

Bcore Bcore
X1 103 X 103 103 X 103 1X
Buser Buser
Nuser
user
ports

Bcore Bcore
X1 1X
Buser Buser

aggregation q core stages disaggregation

R. S. Tucker, "Green optical communications - Part II:

Energy limitations in networks," JSTQE, March/April 2011.
Switch Energies per Bit

O/E Converters
MUX/DEMUX
 Energy Improvements
10-5
Current Trends Routers and
Switches
10-6

Transport
Network Energy per bit (J)

10-7
X 103
X 102
10-8

x 104
10-9
Switches
X Lower Bounds X 102
10-10 X

Transport X
10-11 X

10-12
2010 2015 2020 2025
Year
 Packet Switching
Electronic Packet Switch - No buffers

Forwarding Forwarding
Engine Engine k:1 MUX (20 pJ/b/stage)
1:k DEMUX
(45pJ/b)
1 E/O
1 2 1
2 2
1 1
k k
2 mxm 2
Electronic m
m
Switch
(B/k)
m m
Input O/E
wavelengths (30 pJ/b)
kxk Output
(B) (30 pJ/b/stage) wavelengths
Electronic Switches
(B/k) (B)
 Optical Packet Switch
Driver

mxm
Optical
Switch (B)
E/O

1 1
2 2
Input Output
1 1
wavelengths wavelengths
2 2
(B) (B)
m m

O/E m m k:1 MUX

1:k DEMUX
Forwarding engine,
header replacement (B/k)

Power off during payload ?

 Lower Bound on Energy in Packet Switching
Excludes Forwarding Engine
10-8
Energy per Bit per Switch, Ebit (J)

Optical Packet
Switch
Semiconductor
Optical Amplifier
10-9

10-10

Arrayed WG
Electronic Micro-Ring
Packet
switch Switch Capacity: mB = 1000 Tb/s
10-11

10 100 1000
Bit Rate per Wavelength or Waveband, B (Gb/s)
 Conclusions

 Top-down and bottom-up estimates of energy differ by ~ x104

 Theoretical limits on optical transmission are well defined

 Not so for networks

 Optical packet switching offers no clear advantage over

electronic packet switching