On the Fundamental Energy Trade-offs of Geographical Load Balancing

Abstract

Geographical load balancing can optimize the utilization of green energy and the cost of electricity by taking advantage of greenness and price diversities at geographically dispersed data centers. However, higher green energy utilization or lower electricity cost may actually increase the total energy consumption, and is not necessarily the best option. The achievable energy trade-offs can be captured by taking into consideration a defined service efficiency parameter for geo-dispersed data centers.