Ixia and Juniper Establish Energy Consumption Rating (ECR) Initiative

Juniper Networks, Ixia and Lawrence Berkeley National Labs announced the formation of the Energy Consumption Rating (ECR) Initiative -- a framework for measuring the energy efficiency of network and telecom devices. The aim is to measure the energy consumption of networking equipment so as to be able to reduce the overall carbon footprint of the network.


The ECR Initiative has produced a metric that creates a common energy denominator between different network and telecom systems operating within a single product class. The ECR methodology defines the procedures and conditions for measurements and calculations, and can be readily implemented with industry-standard test equipment. Specifically, the final ECR "performance-per-energy unit" rating, expressed in (watts) / (Gigabit per second) can be reported as a peak (scalar) or synthetic (weighted) metric that takes dynamic energy management capabilities into account. The ECR framework and methodology is vendor-neutral and can be easily adapted to upcoming energy-related ICT standards and legislations. With growing interest from national and international standard bodies to lower operational expenses and the environmental footprint of networking, the ECR offers a turnkey solution for reporting, measuring and regulating energy efficiency of network components.


Ixia is offering an "IxGreen" solution that integrates its test platform with energy measurement devices, correlating the energy statistics against application load. The following current, voltage and power data is collected and made available via real-time statistics views and reports.


As part of a ECR Initiative launch day event hosted at Ixia's iSimCity proof-of-concept lab in Santa Clara, California, Juniper Networks presented its T1600 core routing platform for energy-efficiency testing. The T1600 achieved an ECR value of 9.1 Watts/Gbps, making it one of the more efficient core routing platforms, according to the companies.


The ECR Initiative is welcoming additional participants and users from network equipment manufacturers, government agencies, carriers, and enterprises. The ECR specification and additional details are available for free.

http://www.ecrinitiative.org/http://www.ixiacom.com/