Towards Joint Optimization Over ICT and Cooling Systems in Data Centre: A Survey

Abstract

Effective management of ICT (information and communications technology) and cooling is critical in modern data centres for high energy efficiency. This survey paper gives an overview of the joint optimization between ICT and cooling management under conventional air-cooled technology in the data centre. We first review the enabling techniques of ICT and cooling management in the data centre, which provide the opportunity to dynamically control the server utilization and operate cooling equipment. We then present the coupling models between ICT and cooling management, which are the basis of the optimization approaches for green data centre. The joint optimization of ICT and cooling management is considered under a set of performance metrics, including thermal requirement, power consumption, and application delay. We summarize the workload scheduling algorithms designed from the optimization approaches. We also present some testbeds in the data centres. Finally, we discuss on the future trends of the management in the data centre.