CAREER: Coordinated Power and Thermal Management for Virtualized Data Centers: Algorithms, Framework, and Middleware

近年来，电力和热控制已成为大规模数据中心最严重的问题之一，这些数据中心正在迅速扩大托管服务器的数量。除了降低运营成本之外，精确控制功耗和散热是避免由于越来越高的服务器密度（例如，刀片服务器）。随着许多数据中心开始采用虚拟化技术进行资源共享，电力和热控制变得更具挑战性，从而导致利用率和功耗增加。这个职业生涯项目涉及以下研究课题。1)我们计划设计和评估先进的功率和热控制算法，基于反馈控制理论，以实现控制精度和系统稳定性的分析保证。首先，我们提出了新的控制算法，在多个层次上控制虚拟化服务器环境的功率和应用程序的性能。其次，我们提出了高度可扩展的分层算法来控制整个大型数据中心的功耗。第三，我们将设计级联控制算法，通过与功率控制回路协调来控制散热和处理热紧急情况。2)我们提出了电源和热控制中间件。我们的中间件将找到多个控制回路在不同层协同工作的最佳协调策略，然后配置它们以实现所需的控制功能。此外，我们的中间件可以自动化控制器的设计和分析的通用控制解决方案的过程。3)我们还将研究其他组件，如硬盘驱动器和网络交换机，以及可控性和可行性问题，以便为当今的大型数据中心提供完整的电源和热控制框架。

In recent years, power and thermal control has become one of the most serious concerns for large-scale data centers that are rapidly expanding the number of hosted servers. In addition to reducing operating costs, precisely controlling power consumption and heat dissipation is an essential way to avoid system failures caused by power capacity overload or overheating due to increasingly high server density (e.g., blade servers). Power and thermal control becomes even more challenging as many data centers start to adopt the virtualization technology for resource sharing, leading to increased utilization and power consumption. This CAREER project addresses the following research topics. 1) We plan to design and evaluate advanced power and thermal control algorithms, based on feedback control theory, to achieve analytic assurance of control accuracy and system stability. First, we propose novel control algorithms at multiple layers to control power and application performance for virtualized server environments. Second, we propose highly scalable hierarchical algorithms to control the power consumption of an entire large-scale data center. Third, we will design cascaded control algorithms to control heat dissipation and handle thermal emergencies by coordinating with power control loops. 2) We propose power and thermal control middleware. Our middleware will find the optimal coordination strategy for multiple control loops to work together at different layers, and then configure them to achieve the desired control functions. In addition, our middleware can automate the procedure of controller design and analysis for a universal control solution. 3) We will also investigate other components such as hard drives and network switches, as well as the controllability and feasibility problems, in order to provide a complete power and thermal control framework for today's large-scale data centers.