Method and apparatus of correlating power usage with traffic flow for a network device

• US 8,086,728 B2
• Filed: 03/12/2009
• Issued: 12/27/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/12/2009
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Nasnas, Ramzi K
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Philip B
• Application Number:
  US12/403,209
• Publication Number:
  US 20100235490A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,020 Days
• Field of Search: 709223-224, 709/232, 709/234, 709/238
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/04 Processing captured monitoring data, e.g. for logfile generation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0888 Throughput

Abstract

A network device including: a power utilization monitor for monitoring and determining the power usage for the network device, the power usage being associated with a predetermined time value when the power usage was monitored; a data traffic monitor for determining the traffic flow of the network device, the traffic flow being associated with a predetermined time value when the traffic flow was measured; and a data correlator for correlating the power usage of the network device to the data traffic of the network device by associating the predetermined time value when the power usage was monitored with the predetermined time value when the data traffic flow measurement was made is described.

Claims

1. A network device comprising:

a power utilization monitor for monitoring and determining actual power usage for the network device, the actual power usage being associated with a predetermined time value when the actual power usage was monitored;

a data traffic monitor for determining traffic flow of the network device, the traffic flow being associated with a predetermined time value when the traffic flow was measured; and

a data correlator for correlating the actual power usage of the network device to the data traffic of the network device by associating the predetermined time value when the actual power usage was monitored with the predetermined time value when the data traffic flow measurement was made.

2. The network device recited in claim 1, further including a power monitoring device for monitoring a current value and a voltage value of the network switch, wherein the current value and the voltage value are associated with a predetermined time when the current value and the voltage value are monitored.

3. The network device recited in claim 2, wherein the power monitoring device is a DC power monitor that is electrically coupled to an AC to DC conversion power supply.

4. The network device recited in claim 3, wherein the network device is a POE switch.

5. The network device recited in claim 1, wherein the data traffic monitor includes an ASIC counter which increments as data traffic flows over the switch, wherein the predetermined time value is a time interval T2−

T1 and the data traffic is measured by subtracting the value of the counter at the end of the time interval T2 from the data traffic measured at the beginning of the time interval T1.

6. The network device recited in claim 1, wherein the data correlator computes a power usage efficiency by dividing the actual power usage at the predetermined time value when the actual power usage was monitored by an associated traffic flow value at the predetermined time value when the traffic flow was measured.

7. A method for determining a correlation between actual power usage and traffic flow for a network device comprising the steps of:

monitoring and determining the actual power usage for the network device, the actual power usage being associated with a predetermined time value when the actual power usage was monitored;

determining the traffic flow of the network device, the traffic flow being associated with a predetermined time value when the traffic flow was measured; and

correlating the actual power usage of the network device to the data traffic of the network device by associating the predetermined time value when the actual power usage was monitored with the predetermined time value when the data traffic flow measurement was made.

8. The method recited in claim 7, further comprising the step of monitoring a current value and a voltage value of the network switch, wherein the monitored current value and the monitored voltage value are associated with the predetermined time when the current value and the voltage value are monitored, wherein the monitoring of the current value and the voltage value is performed by a power monitoring device.

9. The method recited in claim 7, further comprising the step of wherein incrementing a counter as traffic flows over the network device, wherein the traffic flow is measured by subtracting the value of the counter at the end of the time interval T2 from the data traffic measured at the beginning of the time interval T1, wherein the predetermined time value is a time interval T2−

T1.

10. The method recited in claim 7, further comprising the step of computing a power usage efficiency by dividing the actual power usage at the predetermined time value when the actual power usage was monitored by associated traffic flow value at the predetermined when the traffic flow was measured, wherein the computing step is performed by the data correlator.

11. The method recited in claim 7, wherein the power monitoring device is a DC power monitoring device, further comprising the step of converting the DC power usage to an AC power usage value using an efficiency curve stored in a memory accessible by a CPU.

12. The method recited in claim 7, further including the step of reporting the correlated actual power usage and data traffic data.

13. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium encoded with code representing computer executable instructions and computer readable data, said code when executed for:

monitoring and determining actual power usage for a network device, the actual power usage being associated with a predetermined time value when the actual power usage was monitored;

determining traffic flow of the network device, the traffic flow being associated with a predetermined time value when the traffic flow was measured; and

correlating the actual power usage of the network device to the data traffic of the network device by associating the predetermined time value when the actual power usage was monitored with the predetermined time value when the data traffic flow measurement was made.

14. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium recited in claim 13, further comprising monitoring a current value and a voltage value of the network switch, wherein the monitored current value and the monitored voltage value are associated with the predetermined time when the current value and the voltage value are monitored, wherein the monitoring of the current value and the voltage value is performed by a power monitoring device.

15. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium recited in claim 13, further comprising incrementing a counter as traffic flows over the network device, wherein the traffic flow is measured by subtracting the value of the counter at the end of the time interval T2 from the data traffic measured at the beginning of the time interval T1.

16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium recited in claim 13, further comprising computing a power usage efficiency by dividing the actual power usage at the predetermined time value when the actual power usage was monitored by associated traffic flow value at the predetermined when the traffic flow was measured, wherein the computing step is performed by the data correlator.

17. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium recited in claim 13, further comprising converting the DC power usage to an AC power usage value using an efficiency curve stored in a memory accessible by a CPU, wherein the power monitoring device is a DC power monitoring device.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium recited in claim 13, further comprising reporting the correlated actual power usage and data traffic data.