Adaptive power control in a network
A power manager in a network monitors a set of multiple interconnected network elements for failures. During non-failing operation, the multiple interconnected network elements cooperatively communicate amongst each other to provide one or more computer devices connectivity to a core network. In response to detecting a failing network element in the set, the network power manager adaptively controls power settings of at least one non-failing network element in the set of multiple interconnected network elements. Via power control notifications, power settings of the non-failing network elements that depend on the particular failing network element can be reduced to save power in the network. Subsequent to correcting the failure, when the particular network element is functioning properly again, the network power manager notifies the non-failing network elements in the reduced power mode to switch back to a standard power mode and standard operational mode again.
1. A method comprising:
via computer processor hardware, performing operations of:
at a power management resource disparately located with respect to a set of multiple interconnected network elements in a network environment, monitoring the set of multiple interconnected network elements, the multiple interconnected network elements cooperatively communicating to provide a computer device connectivity through the network environment to a core network;
based on the monitoring, at the power management resource, receiving respective feedback from each of the multiple interconnected network elements in the set;
from the respective feedback, detecting occurrence of a failure associated with a particular network element in the set of multiple interconnected network elements; and
in response to detecting the failure of the particular network element based on the respective feedback, adaptively controlling power consumption settings of at least one non-failing network element in the set of multiple interconnected network elements.
2. The method as in claim 1 , wherein detecting occurrence of the failure includes:
receiving a message from the particular network element, the message including identity information indicating an identity of the particular network element and location information indicating a location of the particular network element.
3. The method as in claim 1 further comprising:
identifying a location of the particular network element that experiences the failure; and
wherein adaptively controlling the power settings includes notifying the at least one non-failing network element of a geographical location and identity of the particular network element that experienced the failure.
4. The method as in claim 1 further comprising:
obtaining an identity of the particular network element that experiences the failure; and
wherein adaptively controlling the power consumption settings includes notifying the at least one non-failing network element of the identity of the particular network element that experienced the failure.
5. The method as in claim 1 further comprising:
identifying a location of the particular network element that experiences the failure; and
in response to detecting the failure, generating a status message, the status message notifying a respective network technician of the failure and the location of the particular network element in the network environment.
6. The method as in claim 1 , wherein the multiple interconnected network elements cooperatively communicate over a data plane of the network environment to provide the computer device the connectivity to the core network; and
wherein adaptively controlling power settings includes communicating over a control plane of the network environment to notify the at least one non-failing network element in the set of a geographical location and identity of the particular network element that experienced the failure.
7. The method as in claim 6 further comprising:
storing interdependency information associated with the multiple interconnected network elements, the interdependency information indicating a communication interdependency of the multiple interconnected network elements; and
wherein identifying the set of at least one network element in the network environment includes analyzing the communication interdependency to identify the set of at least one network element in the network environment that depend at least in part on the particular element to provide the connectivity to the computer device.
8. The method as in claim 1 further comprising:
in response to detecting the failure, adaptively controlling power consumption settings of the particular network element that experiences the failure.
9. The method as in claim 1 , wherein adaptively controlling the power consumption settings of at least one non-failing network element includes notifying the at least one non-failing network element of a geographical location of the particular network element that experienced the failure, the method further comprising:
receiving a response from a given non-failing network element in the set that receives notification of the geographical location, the response including an inquiry whether an alternative network element is available for use as a substitute to the particular network element.
10. The method as in claim 9 further comprising:
verifying that an alternative network element in the geographical location is free from failures; and
transmitting a reply to the given non-failing network element, the reply granting the given network element permission to use the alternative network element as the substitute.
11. A method comprising:
at power manager hardware, monitoring a health status of multiple interconnected network elements in a network environment, the multiple interconnected network elements cooperating to provide a computer device connectivity to a core network, the power manager hardware disparately located with respect to the interconnected network elements;
based on the monitoring, at the power management hardware, receiving respective feedback from each of the multiple interconnected network elements;
from the respective feedback, detecting occurrence of a failure of a particular network element of the multiple interconnected network elements in the network environment;
identifying a set of multiple network elements in the network environment that depend at least in part on a health of the particular network element to provide the connectivity to the computer device, each of the interconnected network elements in the set physically located at disparate locations with respect to each other; and
in response to detecting the failure of the particular network element based on the respective feedback, notifying the set of multiple network elements of the failure to adaptively control power consumption settings of at least one non-failing network element in the set of multiple network elements.
12. The method as in claim 11 , wherein notifying the set of multiple network elements of the failure includes transmitting respective power setting control information to each network element in the set, the respective power setting control information indicating how to control power settings of a corresponding network element to which the respective power setting control information is transmitted.
13. The method as in claim 11 , wherein monitoring the health status includes receiving a respective health status message from each of multiple interconnected network elements, each respective health status message indicating a geographical location of a corresponding network element that transmits the respective health status message; and
wherein notifying the set of multiple network elements of the failure includes transmitting geographic location information to the set of multiple network elements, the geographic location information indicating a location of the particular network element that experiences the failure.
14. The method as in claim 11 , wherein detecting the failure includes:
failing to receive a health status message from the particular network element indicating that the particular network element is functioning properly.
15. The method as in claim 11 , wherein detecting the failure includes receiving a health status message from the particular network element indicating the failure.
16. The method as in claim 11 further comprising:
receiving a message from the particular network element, the message identity information indicating an identity of the particular network element and location information specifying a location of the particular network element that experiences the failure; and
communicating the identity information and the location information to the set of multiple network elements.
17. The method as in claim 16 further comprising:
receiving a response from a given network element in the set, the response including an inquiry whether an alternative network element in a specified geographical location is available for use as a substitute to the particular network element.
18. The method as in claim 17 further comprising:
verifying that alternative network element in the specified geographical location is free from failures; and
transmitting a reply to the given network element, the reply granting the given network element use of the alternative network element as the substitute.
19. The method as in claim 11 , wherein notifying the set of multiple network elements of the failure includes:
adaptively controlling power consumption settings of the multiple network elements in the set.
20. The method as in claim 11 , wherein the multiple interconnected network elements includes at least one upstream network element with respect to at least one downstream network element, the method further comprising:
storing interdependency information associated with multiple interconnected network elements, the interdependency information indicating a functional interdependency of the multiple interconnected network elements; and
wherein identifying the set of multiple network elements in the network environment includes analyzing the interdependency information to identify the set of multiple network elements in the network environment whose communications depend at least in part on a health of the particular network element to provide the connectivity to the computer device.
21. A computer system comprising:
computer processor hardware; and
a hardware storage resource coupled to the computer processor hardware, the hardware storage resource storing instructions that, when executed by the computer processor hardware, causes the computer processor hardware to perform operations of:
monitoring a set of multiple interconnected network elements in a network environment, the multiple interconnected network elements cooperatively communicating to provide a computer device connectivity to a core network;
based on the monitoring, receiving respective feedback from each of the multiple interconnected network elements in the set;
from the respective feedback, detecting occurrence of a failure associated with a particular network element in the set of multiple interconnected network elements; and
in response to detecting the failure of the particular network element based on the respective feedback, and to reduce power consumption based on the occurrence of the failure, adaptively controlling power consumption settings of at least one non-failing network element in the set of multiple interconnected network elements.
22. The computer system as in claim 21 , wherein detecting occurrence of the failure includes:
receiving a message from the particular network element, the message including identity information indicating an identity of the particular network element and location information indicating a location of the particular network element.
23. The computer system as in claim 21 , wherein the computer processor hardware further performs operations of:
identifying a location of the particular network element that experiences the failure; and
wherein adaptively controlling the power consumption settings includes notifying the at least one non-failing network element of a geographical location and identity of the particular network element that experienced the failure.
24. The computer system as in claim 21 , wherein the computer processor hardware further performs operations of:
obtaining an identity of the particular network element that experiences the failure; and
wherein adaptively controlling the power consumption settings includes notifying the at least one non-failing network element of the identity of the particular network element that experienced the failure.
25. The computer system as in claim 21 , wherein the computer processor hardware further performs operations of:
identifying a location of the particular network element that experiences the failure; and
in response to detecting the failure, generating a status message, the status message notifying a respective network technician of the failure and the location of the particular network element in the network environment.
26. The computer system as in claim 21 , wherein the multiple interconnected network elements cooperatively communicate over a data plane of the network environment to provide the computer device the connectivity to the core network; and
wherein adaptively controlling power consumption settings includes communicating over a control plane of the network environment to notify the at least one non-failing network element in the set of a geographical location and identity of the particular network element that experienced the failure.
27. The computer system as in claim 26 , wherein the computer processor hardware further performs operations of:
storing interdependency information associated with the multiple interconnected network elements, the interdependency information indicating a communication interdependency of the multiple interconnected network elements; and
wherein identifying the set of at least one network element in the network environment includes analyzing the communication interdependency to identify the set of at least one network element in the network environment that depend at least in part on the particular element to provide the connectivity to the computer device.
28. The computer system as in claim 21 , wherein the computer processor hardware further performs operations of:
in response to detecting the failure, adaptively controlling power consumption settings of the particular network element that experiences the failure.
29. The computer system as in claim 21 , wherein adaptively controlling the power consumption settings of at least one non-failing network element includes notifying the at least one non-failing network element of a geographical location of the particular network element that experienced the failure, the computer processor hardware further performing operations of:
receiving a response from a given non-failing network element in the set, the response including an inquiry whether an alternative network element is available for use as a substitute to the particular network element.
30. The computer system as in claim 29 , wherein the computer processor hardware further performs operations of:
verifying that alternative network element in the specified geographical location is free from failures; and
transmitting a reply to the given non-failing network element, the reply granting the given network element permission to use the alternative network element as the substitute.
31. Computer-readable hardware storage having instructions stored thereon, the instructions, when carried out by computer processor hardware, causes the computer processor hardware to:
monitor a set of multiple interconnected network elements in a network environment, the multiple interconnected network elements cooperatively communicating to provide a computer device connectivity through the network environment to a core network;
based on the monitoring, at the power management resource, receive respective feedback from each of the multiple interconnected network elements in the set;
from the respective feedback, detect occurrence of a failure associated with a particular network element in the set of multiple interconnected network elements; and
in response to detecting the failure of the particular network element based on the respective feedback, adaptively control power consumption settings of at least one non-failing network element in the set of multiple interconnected network elements.
32. The method as in claim 1 , wherein respective feedback received from the particular network element indicates occurrence of the failure.
33. The method as in claim 32 , wherein adaptively controlling power consumption settings includes transmitting a power control message to a first non-failing network element in the set to reduce power consumption by the first non-failing network element in response to detecting the failure.
34. The method as in claim 33 , wherein the transmitted message is a control message that places the particular non-failing network element into a sleep mode.
35. The method as in claim 1 further comprising:
identifying a location of the particular network element that experiences the failure; and
wherein adaptively controlling the power settings includes notifying the at least one non-failing network element of a geographical location and identity of the particular network element that experienced the failure.
36. The method as in claim 1 , wherein cooperative communicating among the network elements includes forwarding a communication through a series interconnection including the network elements.
37. The method as in claim 20 , wherein the particular network element is an upstream network element with respect to a non-failing downstream network element in the network environment; and
wherein adaptively controlling the power settings includes notifying the non-failing downstream network element of an identity of the upstream network element that experienced the failure.
38. The method as in claim 33 , wherein the transmitted message is a control message that places the particular non-failing network element into a sleep mode, the method further comprising:
identifying a location of the particular network element that experiences the failure; and
wherein adaptively controlling the power settings includes notifying the at least one non-failing network element of a geographical location and identity of the particular network element that experienced the failure.
39. The method as in claim 38 , wherein cooperative communicating among the network elements includes forwarding a communication through a series interconnection including each of the interconnected network elements in the set.
40. The method as in claim 1 , wherein detecting occurrence of the failure includes:
at the power management resource, receiving a message from the particular network element over a communication link, the message including identity information indicating an identity of the particular network element.
41. The method as in claim 1 further comprising:
identifying a location of the particular network element that experiences the failure.
42. The method as in claim 41 , wherein adaptively controlling the power consumption settings includes notifying the at least one non-failing network element of an identity of the particular network element that experienced the failure.
43. The method as in claim 42 further comprising:
receiving a response from a given non-failing network element in the set that receives notification of the identity of the particular network element, the response including an inquiry whether any alternative network elements are available for use as a substitute to the particular network element;
verifying that an alternative network element with respect to the particular network element in the geographical location is free from failures; and
transmitting a reply to the given non-failing network element, the reply granting the given network element permission to use the verified alternative network element as the substitute to the particular network element.