CSR: Small: Improving Data Center Water Efficiency via Online Resource Management

CSR：小型：通过在线资源管理提高数据中心用水效率

• 批准号: 1423137
• 负责人: Shaolei Ren
• 金额: $ 33.35万
• 依托单位: Florida International University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-10-01 至 2015-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1423137&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CSR; Small; Improving; Data; Center

A large data center may consume millions of gallons of cooling water each day; in addition, data centers also indirectly consume an enormous amount of water embedded in offsite electricity generation. As a result, water conservation is surfacing as a critical concern for data centers, amid the anticipation of surging water demand worldwide. Left unchecked, the growing water footprint of data centers can pose a severe threat to data center sustainability and may even handicap availability of services, especially for data centers in water-stressed areas. Existing mechanical solutions for conservation, such as using recycled/industry water and directly using outside cold air, are often costly and/or very limited by external factors such as locations, climate conditions, among others. As part of the integral efforts from both industry and academy to enable data center sustainability, this project uniquely integrates water footprint as an essential part of resource management in virtualized data centers. It exploits the inherent yet little-known characteristics of time-varying water efficiency and optimizes resource management for minimizing operational cost as well as water footprint without compromising service quality. To this end, this project investigates three complementary research thrusts: (i) Online computing resource management for water sustainability in the presence of large unknown dynamics (such as highly volatile outside temperature); (ii) Exploration of the dependency of data center water efficiency on cooling systems, and joint optimization of cooling and computing resource management for water sustainability; (iii) Experimentation and validation based on combined system prototyping and software simulation. In addition to its environmental impacts, this project has large societal impacts for its potential to alleviate the growing pressure on data center water footprint effectively and economically. This project will enhance the understanding of interplay among water consumption, power/energy consumption, and resource management in data centers, and lay a solid foundation for sustainable evolvement of greener data centers. New findings and techniques will be readily incorporated into teaching materials. The project also contains a significant component to promote diversity by inspiring minority students, especially Hispanic students, to engage in computer science research.

大型数据中心每天可能消耗数百万加仑的冷却水；此外，数据中心还间接消耗了异地发电中的大量水。因此，在全球用水需求激增的情况下，节约用水正成为数据中心的一个关键问题。如果不加以控制，数据中心不断增长的水足迹可能会对数据中心的可持续性构成严重威胁，甚至可能妨碍服务的可用性，特别是对于缺水地区的数据中心。现有的机械保护解决方案，例如使用循环水/工业水和直接使用外部冷空气，通常成本高昂和/或受到位置、气候条件等外部因素的限制。作为行业和学术界为实现数据中心可持续性而共同努力的一部分，该项目独特地将水足迹整合为虚拟化数据中心资源管理的重要组成部分。它利用时变水效率的固有但鲜为人知的特征，并优化资源管理，以最大限度地减少运营成本和水足迹，而不影响服务质量。为此，该项目研究了三个互补的研究重点：（i）在存在大量未知动态（例如高度波动的外部温度）的情况下实现水可持续性的在线计算资源管理； (ii) 探索数据中心用水效率对冷却系统的依赖性，以及冷却和计算资源管理的联合优化以实现水的可持续性； (iii) 基于组合系统原型设计和软件模拟的实验和验证。除了环境影响外，该项目还具有巨大的社会影响，因为它有可能有效且经济地缓解数据中心水足迹日益增长的压力。 该项目将增强对数据中心水消耗、电力/能源消耗和资源管理之间相互作用的理解，并为绿色数据中心的可持续发展奠定坚实的基础。新的发现和技术将很容易纳入教材中。该项目还包含一个重要组成部分，即通过鼓励少数族裔学生，特别是西班牙裔学生，参与计算机科学研究来促进多样性。