System and method for intelligent energy management in a network environment

• US 8,732,501 B1
• Filed: 02/09/2009
• Issued: 05/20/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/09/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ghose, Tirthankar, Kunkel, David W., Laherty, Matthew A., Parello, John D.
• Primary Examiner(s): STIGLIC, RYAN M
• Application Number:
  US12/368,124
• Time in Patent Office: 1,926 Days
• Field of Search: 713/300
• US Class Current: 713/324
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3209 Monitoring remote activity, e.g. over telephone lines or network connections
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/329 by task scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5094 where the allocation takes into account power or heat criteria power management in computers in general G06F1/3203; thermal management in computers in general G06F1/206
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A method is provided in one example embodiment and includes generating a message to be communicated over a network to a plurality of entities that reside in a domain. The message includes data relating to energy use. The message can be generated by one or more computing devices belonging to the domain. A selected one of the computing devices can control power consumption for the entities in the domain. In more specific embodiments, a formatting of the message is done at an application level. The formatting of the message is independent of a transport protocol of the message.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

generating a message for a plurality of entities that reside in a domain, that includes at least one parent entity acting on behalf of one or more child entities;

broadcasting the message to the entities;

broadcasting a query to each entity in the plurality of entities, wherein the query asks each entity what an energy impact would be if the entity changed from a first power state to a second power state; and

receiving a delta value in response to the query, wherein the delta value represents the energy impact if the entity changed from the first power state to the second power state.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein a formatting of the message is done at an application level.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the formatting of the message is independent of a transport protocol of the message.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the message is a discovery message that indicates that an entity has connected to the network.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the message is a query that asks one or more of the entities for their current power consumption.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the message is a query that asks one or more of the entities for their current power level.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the message is an event that indicates a status change for energy consumption for one or more of the entities of the domain.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the message includes a time-of-day policy to control power consumption for the entities.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the message includes an indication to respond to the message individually as an entity, or to respond such that all responses from the entities are summed for a sender of the message.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein queries from any one member of the domain can be forwarded to all members of the domain.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the entities can determine what their power usage would be at certain power levels.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the domain includes a plurality of switches and a secure socket layer interface is used to allow a single switch in the plurality of switches to query or set information from or to each of the other switches in the plurality of switches.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising maintaining attributes for each of the entities, the attributes including a domain identifier attribute, a geographic location attribute associated with each of the entities, and a parent-child relationship attribute, which reflects a relationship between the entities.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining an energy impact for the domain if one or more of the entities changes power levels from a first power state to a second power state.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the delta value is received from each entity in response to the query.

16. An apparatus, comprising:

a management module configured to;

generating a message for a plurality of entities that reside in a domain of a self-organized and dynamic cloud network, the domain includes at least one parent entity acting on behalf of one or more child entities;

broadcast the message to the entities;

broadcasting a query to each entity in the plurality of entities, wherein the query asks each entity what an energy impact would be if the entity changed from a first power state to a second power state; and

receiving a delta value from each entity in response to the query, wherein the delta value represents the energy impact if the entity changed from the first power state to the second power state.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein a formatting of the message is done at an application level, and wherein the formatting of the message is independent of a transport protocol of the message.

18. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the message is a discovery message that indicates that an entity has connected to the network.

19. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the message is a query that asks one or more of the entities to set their current power level to a designated level.

20. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the message includes a time-of-day policy to control power consumption for the entities and the policy is recurring.

21. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the message is broadcasted to all the entities in the domain, or communicated to an individual entity in the domain.

22. Logic encoded in non-transitory media for performing operations, comprising:

generating a message for a plurality of entities that reside in a domain, that includes at least one parent entity acting on behalf of one or more child entities;

broadcasting the message to the entities;

broadcasting a query to each entity in the plurality of entities, wherein the query asks each entity what an energy impact would be if the entity changed from a first power state to a second power state; and

receiving a delta value from each entity in response to the query, wherein the delta value represents the energy impact if the entity changed from the first power state to the second power state.

23. The logic of claim 22, wherein a formatting of the message is done at an application level, and wherein the formatting of the message is independent of a transport protocol of the message.

24. The logic of claim 22, wherein the message is a discovery message that indicates that an entity has connected to the network.

25. The logic of claim 22, wherein the message is a query that asks one or more of the entities for their current power consumption or for their current power level.

26. The logic of claim 22, wherein the message is a query that asks one or more of the entities to set their current power level to a designated level.

27. A system, comprising:

means for generating a message for a plurality of entities that reside in a domain of a self-organized and dynamic cloud network, the domain includes at least one parent entity acting on behalf of one or more child entities;

means for maintaining attributes for each of the entities, the attributes including a domain identifier attribute, a geographic location attribute associated with each of the entities, and a parent-child relationship attribute, which reflects a relationship between the entities;

means for determining an energy impact if one or more of the entities changes power levels from a first power state to a second power state; and

means for broadcasting the message to the entities;

means for broadcasting a query to each entity in the plurality of entities, wherein the query asks each entity what an energy impact would be if the entity changed from a first power state to a second power state; and

means for receiving a delta value from each entity in response to the query, wherein the delta value represents the energy impact if the entity changed from the first power state to the second power state.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein a formatting of the message is done at an application level, and wherein the formatting of the message is independent of a transport protocol of the message.

29. The system of claim 27, wherein the message is an event that indicates a status change for energy consumption for one or more of the entities of the domain.