Network Computing is part of the Informa Tech Division of Informa PLC

This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.

Ethernet Goes Green: Page 3 of 5

The best way to gauge the potential benefits is to consider power consumption of Ethernet at different speeds. The biggest savings would be in a scenario in which a 10-Gbps Ethernet link reduces power consumption to the level of 1 Gbps when data is not transmitted. If you assume 10 Gbps uses about 10 watts for each of the two ends of the link and 1 Gbps uses about 2 watts per end, and the cost of electricity is 8 cents per kilowatt hour, you could save $5.60 per link per year if the computer is in power-saving mode for 50 percent of each day.

Under those conditions, a site with 1,000 computers would save $5,600 per year in electricity costs. There are also side benefits in cooling costs and switches may realize additional power savings as they reduce port power usage.

Technical Difficulties