Energy Consumption and Communicating Protocols
0Presented at EclipseCon 2023 in Ludwigsburg, Germany by Angelo Corsaro (ZettaScale Technology SARL).
Energy is a precious resource, that goes without saying. As such, we should be using energy efficiently and effectively. But what does efficiency really mean?
One way of defining efficiency is with respect to the amount of work that is done with a unit of energy. This definition is sufficiently close to what is used in physics to characterize the efficiency of heat engines. It also can be used to reason about the efficiency of a messaging protocol – which is precisely the exercise we’ll undergo in this presentation.
More precisely, in this presentation we will define the three key elements of protocol efficiency, namely processing, wire and routing efficiency. Then we'll meausre these efficinecy elements for MQTT, OMG DDS and Eclipse Zenoh.
Understanding the energy implications of a protocol is extremely important for battery powered devices, and in general for reducing the emission. As we'll discover in this presentation, most of the time we focus on the "visible" tip of the iceberg... Ignoring where the real energetic consequence associated with using one protocol or another.
This presentation does not require any specific prior knowledge. But you are warned, attending this session will be like taking "The Matrix" red pill on actual energy consumption. Are you sure this is what you want?