Power Herd: Dynamic Satisfaction of Peak Power Constraints in Interconnection Networks

Power consumption is a critical issue in interconnection network design, driven by power-related design constraints, such as thermal and power delivery design. Usually, off-line worst-case power analysis is used in network design to guarantee safe on-line operation, which not only increases system cost but also constrains network performance. In this work, we present an on-line mechanism, called PowerHerd, which can dynamically regulate network power consumption, and guarantee that network peak power constraints are not exceeded. PowerHerd is a distributed approach -within the interconnection network, each router dynamically maintains a local power budget, controls its local power dissipation, and exchanges spare power resources with its neighboring routers to optimize network performance. Experiments demonstrate that PowerHerd can effectively regulate network power consumption meeting peak power constraints with negligible network performance penalty. Armed with PowerHerd, network designers can focus on system performance and power optimization for the average case rather than the worst case, thus making it possible to employ a more powerful interconnection network in the system.