Power routing: dynamic power provisioning in the data center

Data center power infrastructure incurs massive capital costs, which typically exceed energy costs over the life of the facility. To squeeze maximum value from the infrastructure, researchers have proposed over-subscribing power circuits, relying on the observation that peak loads are rare. To ensure availability, these proposals employ power capping, which throttles server performance during utilization spikes to enforce safe power budgets. However, because budgets must be enforced locally—at each power distribution unit (PDU)—local utilization spikes may force throttling even when power delivery capacity is available elsewhere. Moreover, the need to maintain reserve capacity for fault tolerance on power delivery paths magnifies the impact of utilization spikes. In this paper, we develop mechanisms to better utilize installed power infrastructure, reducing reserve capacity margins and avoiding performance throttling. Unlike conventional high-availability data centers, where coll...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2010
• Where: ASPLOS
• Authors: Steven Pelley, David Meisner, Pooya Zandevakili, Thomas F. Wenisch, Jack Underwood
• Keywords: ASPLOS 2010, Power Delivery, Power Feeds, Power Infrastructure, Programming Languages