Scheduling a computational task for performance by a server computing device in a data center

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10928845-B2
Application number	US-201816176836-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 31, 2018
Priority date	Dec 17, 2010
Publication date	Feb 23, 2021
Grant date	Feb 23, 2021

Abstract

Described herein are various technologies pertaining to predicting an amount of electrical power that is to be generated by a power system at a future point in time, wherein the power system utilizes a renewable energy resource to generate electrical power. A camera is positioned to capture an image of sky over a geographic region of interest. The image is analyzed to predict an amount of solar radiation that is to be received by the power source at a future point in time. The predicted solar radiation is used to predict an amount of electrical power that will be output by the power system at the future point in time. A computational resource of a data center that is powered by way of the power source is managed as a function of the predicted amount of power.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
at least one processor; and
memory that comprises instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform acts comprising:
predicting that an amount of electrical energy provided to a data center by an energy source will be above a predefined threshold at a time in the future, wherein the energy source generates electrical energy based upon a renewable energy resource; and
scheduling a server computing device at the data center to perform a computational task such that the computational task is performed by the server computing device at the time in the future, wherein the server computing device is scheduled to perform the computing task at the time in the future based upon the amount of electrical energy provided to the data center being predicted to be above the predefined threshold at the time in the future, and further the server computing device performs the computational task in accordance with the scheduling of the computation task.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein predicting that the amount of electrical energy provided to the data center by the energy source will be above the predefined threshold at the time in the future comprises:
receiving an image pertaining to a geographic region, the data center located in the geographic region; and
predicting a weather condition for the geographic region at the time in the future based upon the image pertaining to the geographic image, wherein the amount of electrical energy that is to be provided to the data center is predicted to be above the predefined threshold at the time in the future based upon the predicted weather condition.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein predicting the weather condition for the geographic region at the time in the future based upon the image pertaining to the geographic region comprises:
computing a size of a cloud captured in the image, wherein the weather condition for the geographic region at the time in the future is predicted based upon the computed size of the cloud captured in the image.

4. The system of claim 2 , wherein predicting the weather condition for the geographic region at the time in the future based upon the image pertaining to the geographic region comprises:
computing a rate of change of a size of a cloud captured in the image, wherein the weather condition for the geographic region at the time in the future is predicted based upon the computed size of the cloud captured in the image.

5. The system of claim 2 , wherein predicting the weather condition for the geographic region at the time in the future based upon the image pertaining to the geographic region comprises:
based upon the image, computing a direction of movement of a cloud captured in the image, wherein the weather condition for the geographic region at the time in the future is predicted based upon the computed direction of movement of the cloud captured in the image.

6. The system of claim 2 , wherein predicting the weather condition for the geographic region at the time in the future based upon the image pertaining to the geographic region comprises:
based upon the image, computing a velocity of a cloud captured in the image, wherein the weather condition for the geographic region at the time in the future is predicted based upon the computed velocity of the cloud captured in the image.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the amount of electrical energy is predicted to be above the predefined threshold at the time in the future based upon historical weather conditions and corresponding output of electrical energy by the energy source.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein predicting that the amount of electrical energy provided to the data center by the energy source will be above the predefined threshold at the time in the future comprises:
predicting a weather condition for the time in the future at a geographic region, the geographic region includes the energy source, wherein the amount of electrical energy that is to be provided to the data center is predicted to be above the predefined threshold at the time in the future based upon the predicted weather condition.

9. The system of claim 1 , the acts further comprising:
scheduling a battery backup for charging at the time in the future based upon the amount of electrical energy provided to the data center being predicted to be above the predefined threshold at the time in the future.

10. A method performed by a processor of a computing system, the method comprising:
predicting that an amount of electrical energy provided to a data center by an energy source will be above a predefined threshold at a time in the future, wherein the energy source generates electrical energy based upon a renewable energy resource; and
scheduling a server computing device at the data center to perform a computational task such that the computational task is performed by the server computing device at the time in the future, wherein the server computing device is scheduled to perform the computing task at the time in the future based upon the amount of electrical energy provided to the data center being predicted to be above the predefined threshold at the time in the future, and further the server computing device performs the computational task in accordance with the scheduling of the computation task.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the renewable energy resource is solar radiation.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein the renewable energy resource is wind.

13. The method of claim 10 , wherein scheduling the server computing device at the data center to perform a computational task comprises at least one of:
scheduling the server computing device to be throttled at the time in the future;
scheduling the server to be powered on at or prior to the time in the future; or
scheduling the server to perform a portion of a batch job at the time in the future.

14. The method of claim 10 , wherein predicting that the amount of electrical energy provided to the data center by the energy source will be above the predefined threshold at the time in the future comprises:
predicting, for the time in the future, a weather condition for a geographic region that includes the energy source, wherein the amount of electrical energy provided to the data center is predicted to be above the predefined threshold based upon the weather condition predicted for the time in the future.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein predicting, for the time in the future, the weather condition for the geographic region comprises:
computing depth of a cloud based upon an image pertaining to the geographic region, the image captured by a camera pointed upwards from earth towards sky, wherein the weather condition for the time in the future is predicted based upon the computed depth of the cloud.

16. The method of claim 14 , wherein predicting, for the time in the future, the weather condition for the geographic region comprises:
computing a rate of change of size of a cloud based upon an image pertaining to the geographic region, the image captured by a camera pointed upwards from earth towards sky, wherein the weather condition for the time in the future is predicted based upon the computed rate of change of the size of the cloud.

17. The method of claim 14 , wherein predicting, for the time in the future, the weather condition for the geographic region comprises:
computing a direction of travel of a cloud across the sky based upon an image pertaining to the geographic region, the image captured

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Williams Charles Joseph
• Kliot Gabriel
• Lin Chia-Chi
• Harris Shaun L
• Belady Christian L
• Peterson Eric C

Classifications

• G06V20/13

  Satellite images · CPC title

• G05F1/66 Primary

  Regulating electric power · CPC title

• G06N5/048

  Fuzzy inferencing · CPC title

• G01W1/00

  Meteorology · CPC title

• G06K9/0063

  Physics · mapped topic