An Experimental Evaluation of the TCP Energy Consumption

The objective of this paper is to determine how the incoming and outgoing traffic patterns provided by the TCP impact the energy efficiency of a networked device under realistic scenarios. We set up a complex test-bed that allowed us to perform a large number of measurements of energy- and network-performance indexes on a general-purpose computing system with power management capabilities, and the Linux operating system. The performed measurements gave us a chance not only 1) to provide a complete energy profiling of TCP connections, but also 2) to analyze the role of underlying network protocols in detail, and 3) to identify specific situations where current network protocols may trigger high inefficiencies in networked hosts. Based on the obtained results, we also conducted further experiments for evaluating techniques for reducing the energy consumption induced by TCP data transfers under different scenarios.