Priority-aware power capping for hierarchical power distribution networks

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9880599-B1
Application number	US-201615291717-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Oct 12, 2016
Priority date	Oct 12, 2016
Publication date	Jan 30, 2018
Grant date	Jan 30, 2018

Abstract

A mechanism is provided for throttling power utilized by a set of power consumption devices using priority-aware power capping. Responsive to unassigned power budget remaining in the overall power budget after a minimum power budget value has been assigned to the child device based on an associated priority of the child device, an additional power budget value equal to a remaining priority-based exposed power demand value of the child device is assigned to the child device in response to the remaining unassigned power budget being greater than or equal to the remaining priority-based demanded power value thereby forming a total power budget for the child device. Responsive to design limitations of power distribution equipment in the data processing system or contractual limits of the data processing system being reached, a throttling is implemented by each child device based on the total power budget assigned to the child device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, in a data processing system, for throttling power utilized by a set of power consumption devices in the data processing system using priority-aware power capping, the method comprising:
for each child device in a set of child devices in the data processing system and working from a highest-priority child device to a lowest-priority child device, responsive to unassigned power budget remaining in the overall power budget after a minimum power budget value has been assigned to the child device based on an associated priority of the child device, assigning, by the priority-aware power capping mechanism, an additional power budget value equal to a remaining priority-based exposed power demand value of the child device to the child device in response to the remaining unassigned power budget being greater than or equal to the remaining priority-based demanded power value thereby forming a total power budget for the child device, wherein the child device is a power controller representing a power distribution device, wherein the priority-based exposed power demand value is determined using a set of metrics of the child device, wherein the set of metrics of the child device comprise at least an exposed power demand per priority (Demand exposed j), that is determined using the following formula:

Demand
exposed

⁢
j

=

min
⁢

{

Limit
-

∑

k
<
j

⁢

Pcapmin
⁢

⁢
k

-

∑

k
>
j

⁢

Demand
exposed

⁢
k

,

∑
i

⁢

Demand
exposed

⁢
ij

}

,

and
wherein Limit is a design limitation of the child device, Pcapmin refers to the lowest power cap that the child device operates under, j is the instant priority being considered signifying an importance of the child device, i is each child power controller/server below the child device, and k is all other priorities other than priority j being considered; and
responsive to design limitations of power distribution equipment in the data processing system or contractual limits of the data processing system being reached, implementing, by the priority-aware power capping mechanism, a throttling by each child device based on the total power budget assigned to the child device.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
for each child device in the set of child devices in the data processing system and working from the highest-priority child device to the lowest-priority child device, responsive to unassigned power remaining in the overall power budget after assigning the minimum power budget value and after assigning the additional power budget value, assigning, by the priority-aware power capping mechanism, a further power budget value to the child device in a first predetermined manner thereby forming an updated total power budget for the child device; and
responsive to design limitations of power distribution equipment in the data processing system or contractual limits of the data processing system being reached, implementing, by the priority-aware power capping mechanism, a throttling by each child device based on the updated total power budget assigned to the child device.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
for each child device in the set of child devices in the data processing system and working from the highest-priority child device to the lowest-priority child device, responsive to unassigned power remaining in the overall power budget after assigning the minimum power budget value and responsive to the remaining unassigned power being less than the remaining priority-based demanded power value, assigning, by the priority-aware power capping mechanism, an additional power budget value to the child device in a second predetermined manner thereby forming an updated total power budget for the child device; and
responsive to design limitations of power distribution equipment in the data processing system or contractual limits of the data processing system being reached, implementing, by the priority-aware power capping mechanism, a throttling by each child device based on the updated total power budget assigned to the child device.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the second predetermined manner is selected from the group consisting of equal proportion and high-demand cut-first.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the set of metrics of the child device further comprise at least one of a constraint or a minimum power cap per priority (Pcapmin j) that are determined using one or more of the following formulas:

Constraint
=

min
⁢

{

Limit
,

∑
i

⁢

Constraint
⁢

⁢
ij

}

,
or

Pcapmin
⁢

⁢
j

=

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Allen-Ware Malcolm S
• Keller Jr Thomas W
• Lefurgy Charles R
• Li Yang
• Rajamani Karthick
• Shanks Samuel W
• Silva Guillermo J
• Smith Eddie L
• Yanes James

Classifications

• G06F1/26 Primary

  Power supply means, e.g. regulation thereof (for memories G11C) · CPC title

• G06F1/266 Primary

  Arrangements to supply power to external peripherals either directly from the computer or under computer control, e.g. supply of power through the communication port, computer controlled power-strips · CPC title

• H04L67/10

  in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network (software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46) · CPC title

• H04L41/5022

  by giving priorities, e.g. assigning classes of service · CPC title

• G06F1/3228

  Monitoring task completion, e.g. by use of idle timers, stop commands or wait commands · CPC title