A sensor network to profile the electrical power consumption of computer networks

We introduce a sensor network to measure the individual power consumption of a large number of network elements in near-real time. A main application of this system is to obtain profiles of the power usage of network elements, i.e., a parameterization of power consumption with respect to workload. We discuss the design and implementation of both hardware and software aspects of the system as well as the application of the measurement results to achieve power-efficient routing.