TEMPO: Thermal-Efficient Management of Power in High-Throughput Network Switches

Communication rates of high-throughput network switches cause heat dissipation that can harm both performance and system reliability. Therefore, these systems integrate an aggressive cooling subsystem, often based on the operation of power-hungry fans at high-speeds to maintain a low ambient temperature. However, this may lead to both a high-degree of power waste and unacceptable acoustic levels. In this paper, we propose TEMPO, a thermal-efficient management scheme for system cooling with minimal fan power consumption and noise production, based on a straightforward, simple to apply algorithm. Tempo was applied to a Mellanox switch providing as much as a 30% power reduction and a 20% sound power reduction compared to the previously available commercial firmware.