As energy prices soar, and governments and organisations start
to sweat over their carbon footprint, the energy consumption of
the internet is coming under scrutiny. US academics and
researchers from companies Intel and Microsoft are developing
strategies to cut the consumption of computer-network hardware.
While most personal computers adjust how much energy they use
depending on their workload, and shut down when unused, network
hardware does not. The servers, routers and other components of
networks are designed to cope with much larger amounts of data
than they do day-to-day, and use roughly the same amount of
energy whether idle or busy. But subtly tweaking the flow of
network traffic to allow routers and servers to work less hard,
or spend more time "sleeping" in a resting state could make
dramatic savings. Sergiu Nedevschi of the University of
California in Berkeley, US, and colleagues at Intel Research
labs in Berkeley and Seattle, have worked out how to make energy
savings of around 50%, by delaying