Proxying—Reducing Network-Induced Consumption

Opportunity

When today's PCs are in their sleep mode, they lose most of their network connectivity.  This is a principal reason for the low utilization of PC power management in commercial buildings and, increasingly, in residences. The result is that most energy used by desktop computers is when no one is present in front of them, and they are doing no useful computation.

Solution

One method of maintaining continuous network presence is for a PC (or any networked product) to transfer network presence to a "proxy" when entering sleep mode.  The proxy can be the PC's built-in network interface (NIC) or an external device such as the local network switch.  The proxy responds to routine network traffic as the PC sleeps and wakes the PC when, and only when, it is truly necessary.  We refer to this process as Proxying.  A NIC that implements this technology is referred to as a SmartNIC.

A key first step to creating proxies is crafting a definition of full network presence and having it adopted by appropriate standards organizations (such as the Internet Engineering Task Force or the Distributed Management Task Force).  This technology is also required for Tier 2 requirements for the ENERGY STAR computer specification.

Further Information

A description of the concept and potential of Proxying can be found on the Ethernet Alliance page for White Papers as Improving the Energy Efficiency of the Ethernet-Connected Devices: A Proposal for Proxying.

We provide answers to a set of Frequently Asked Questions.

Contact

• Bruce Nordman
• (510) 486-7089