Carbon Intelligent Computing for Hyper-scale Data-centres: Matching Computing and Networking with Global Economy Needs

信息和通信技术（ICT）在过去几年中极大地改变了全球商业格局，并使其几乎可以随时随地访问。这在很大程度上要归功于云计算平台的诞生，它提供了虚拟化、分布式和强大的计算基础设施，以满足不断增长的经济需求。这个强大平台的支柱建立在被称为超大规模数据中心（dc）的巨大工业设施上，其特点是巨大的设置空间、无缝计算和超过100兆瓦的电力需求。然而，这些数据中心每年消耗近200太瓦时的能源来支持不同的业务需求，这导致全球0.3%的碳排放量。各种报告表明，这一趋势将很快急剧上升。例如，当今天出生的孩子长到十几岁时，这些云数据中心的能源消耗将上升到全球的近20%。此外，信息通信技术产业对电力的日益依赖也改变了全球能源生产和使用的方式。在过去的二十年里，许多科技巨头都为减少能源消耗做出了认真的努力，并采取了清洁能源举措。b谷歌是最大的互联网和云巨头之一，自2007年以来一直是碳中和的，在这个方向上引入了一个最新的趋势，叫做“碳智能计算”。它支持将云数据中心的计算和网络密集型任务转移到高绿色能源可用性时期的概念，而不是存储非峰值电力并在高峰时段使用。然而，这种向24/7无碳能源利用的标志性转变提出了一个重要的研究问题，即如何将可变的可再生能源可用性与数据处理、存储和传输的可变数字需求相匹配？另一个重要的研究挑战是如何在时间和空间上转移直流负荷，以满足更高的可持续性目标，而不损害直流性能。因此，在我的发现研究计划中，我将尝试分析、阐述和解决与跨全球分布的超大规模数据中心采用碳智能计算相关的关键挑战，并为这些超大规模数据中心的传入工作负载和流量设计最佳调度和分配算法。因此，总体思路是以可持续和节能的方式将超大规模数据中心内的计算和网络需求与全球市场相匹配。该研究项目的总体好处是促进了高效碳智能计算的学术知识和工业进步，因为它涉及到许多研究生的培训。此外，研究成果将利用开放获取的预印本进行传播，并将知识产权转让给加拿大工业。

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has significantly changed the global business landscape in the last couple of years and has made it virtually accessible anywhere and anytime. Much of this credit can be attributed to the inception of the Cloud Computing platform that provides virtualised, distributed, and powerful computing infrastructure to cater to the ever-growing economy's needs. The pillars of this powerful platform rest on gigantic industrial facilities called HyperScale Data-centres (DCs), which are characteristic of their colossal setup space, seamless computing, and more than 100 MWs of electricity requirements. However, these DCs consume almost 200 TWh of energy every year to support different business needs, which leads to 0.3% carbon emissions worldwide. Various reports indicate that this trend will sharply rise soon. For instance, by the time a child born today reaches her teens, the energy consumption of these cloud DCs will escalate to almost 20% globally. Furthermore, the growing dependence of the ICT industry on electricity has also changed the way the energy is being produced and used worldwide. During the last two decades, many tech giants have made serious efforts for reduced energy consumption and have adopted clean energy initiatives. Google, one of the biggest Internet and Cloud giants that is carbon neutral since 2007, has introduced one of the latest trends in this direction called "carbon intelligent computing". It supports the notion to shift the computational and network-intensive tasks of the cloud DCs to the periods of high green energy availability in contrast to storing the off-peak power and using it during the peak hours. However, this iconic shift towards 24/7 utilisation of carbon-free energy raises an important research question, i.e., how to match the variable renewable energy availability with the variable digital needs for data processing, storage, and transmission? Another important research challenge is how to shift the DC load in both time and space to meet higher sustainability goals without jeopardising DC's performance. Therefore, in my discovery research program, I will attempt to analyse, elaborate, and address the critical challenges related to the adoption of carbon intelligent computing across the globally distributed HyperScale DCs, and designing optimal scheduling and distribution algorithms for the incoming workloads and traffic across these HyperScale DCs. Thus, the overall idea is to match the computing and networking needs within the HyperScale DCs to the global market in a sustainable and energy-efficient manner. The research program's overall benefits are to further the academic knowledge and industrial advances for efficient Carbon Intelligent Computing since it involves the training of many graduate students. Moreover, the research results will be disseminated using open access preprints and the transfer of intellectual property to Canadian Industries.