One document matched: draft-nordman-eman-energy-perspective-01.txt
Differences from draft-nordman-eman-energy-perspective-00.txt
Network Working Group B. Nordman
Internet-Draft Lawrence Berkeley National
Intended status: Informational Laboratory
Expires: September 15, 2011 March 14, 2011
Energy perspective on applicability
draft-nordman-eman-energy-perspective-01
Abstract
This memo discusses applicability for energy management features to
various types of devices and buildings. It describes the variety of
applications that can use the EMAN energy framework and associated
MIB modules. P otential examples are building networks, home energy
gateway, etc. Finally, the document will also discuss relationships
of the framework to other architectures and frameworks (such as
smartgrid). The applicability statement will explain the
relationship between the work in this WG and the other existing
standards such as those from the IEC, ANSI, DMTF, and others.
Status of this Memo
This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.
Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute
working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet-
Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.
Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."
This Internet-Draft will expire on September 15, 2011.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2011 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
(http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
publication of this document. Please review these documents
carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
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to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.1. Eman overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2. Usage overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2. Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.1. Building Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.2. Network Management System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.3. Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3. Use Contexts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.1. Management context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.1.1. Highly managed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.1.2. Loosely managed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.1.3. Hybrids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.2. Building types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.2.1. Residential . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.2.2. Commercial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.2.3. Data Centers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3.2.4. Other industrial buildings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3.2.5. Vehicles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3.3. Device types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.3.1. Information technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.3.2. Other electronic devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.3.3. Non-electronic devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4. Other topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.1. Power distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.2. Discovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4.3. Identity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
5. Related Standards and Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
5.1. Standards that inform measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
5.2. Standards that inform reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
5.2.1. DMTF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
5.2.2. Ecma SDC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
5.3. Other Standards and Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
5.3.1. Smart Grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
6. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
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7. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
8. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
9. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
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1. Introduction
The EMAN framework describes functionality for reporting of energy
information in an Internet Protocol network. Monitoring is a
critical first step towards energy management more generally,
including control. Other Internet Drafts describe the requirements,
framework, and implementation of this system. This document reviews
how it is expected to be used, and how it relates to other activities
regarding energy and information technology.
This document is intended to be useful to a wide set of audiences,
including those with energy as a primary interest (who do not
necessarily have any background in networking), the more usual
network-centric audience in the IETF (who may have not connection to
energy issues), and many whose knowledge and interest is
intermediate.
1.1. Eman overview
The most basic example of energy management is a single device
reporting only basic information about its own energy status; these
"simple devices". The information is reported directly to a Network
Management System (NMS).
The framework also provides additional features for collecting
information from devices intermediate between the NMS and end-use
devices. These intermediate devices ("complex devices") may have
capabilities for monitoring or control, may serve to collect
information from many devices for more efficient data transfer, may
process the data (e.g. by summing across many devices), or any
combination of these. The same protocol is used whether the NMS is
communicating with an intermediate or end use device. The same
protocol may be used between an intermediate and end use device.
This protocol does not define anything about the network management
system, but only identifies it as the recipient of information. The
NMS will commonly have an entire single building as its scope, though
in some cases will cover only a part of a building, or multiple
buildings. Usually the NMS will be scoped to match the reach of the
local area network it is part of.
All devices are in scope, whether they are traditional IT products
like computers or network equipment, or other energy-using devices
that are only now beginning to get IP connections, such as
appliances, lighting, and climate control systems. (Devices that are
only ever powered by batteries, such as sensor nodes, could use this
protocol, but are not a target).
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The other eman documents are authoritative for specific technical
content.
1.2. Usage overview
The basic usage of the eman protocol is a building operator
installing software for collecting eman informatin on an existing
device in the building, e.g. a personal computer, a server, or piece
of network equipment. This software is the Network Management System
(NMS) for eman; it can be implemented by extending an existing NMS
that performs other functions, or by software that only deals with
energy issues.
The NMS begins by probing the local area network to discover devices
that respond to eman queries. It first discovers what devices are on
the network at all, then determines the subset that implement eman.
It then requests all information from each eman reporting device;
much of which is static so does not need to be requested again.
The NMS then determines how often to query each device for updates to
the energy information. This will likely vary by building type and
device type, and the period could range from monthly to once per
minute. The frequency of interrogation is entirely up to the NMS and
can change dynamically as the NMS deems necessary. Only a small
amount of data needs to be provided for the periodic reporting.
Some devices will fail to report some of the time, either because
they are in a low-power state which does not include the ability to
do eman reporting, or because they are portable and only sometimes in
the building (e.g. a notebook computer). Occasionally, a device will
leave the building permanently.
The NMS needs to periodically scan for new eman devices, and query
for all devices for characteristics that could in principle change,
but do so infrequently or never.
Finally, the NMS will digest the reported information into forms
readily understood by people. Esxample include summaries by type of
device ("energy end uses") based on the reported identity
information, or by location within the building. Also, a NMS may
detect suspected or known anomalous energy usage and highlight that,
in case it represents equipment malfunction or inefficient or
insufficient operation. Electricity pricing is becoming increasingly
dynamic, so that the simple translation from quantity of energy to
economic cost is becoming more complex. The ability of eman to
enable tracking energy use over time provides for incorporating the
time dimension of electricity use into both monitoring and control.
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2. Terminology
This section reviews select terms used in this draft.
2.1. Building Network
Traditional IT local networks are made up of entities that provide
information services. Future Building Networks will not be separate
from the IT network, but will incorporate many devices whose primary
function is not information, such as those that provide light,
regulate temperature or ventilation, and appliances. A building
network is IP-based and enables full inter-operation of IT and non-IT
devices.
Traditional building control systems were developed before IP
networking, often have limited scope in the services they address,
and are often based on proprietary technologies.
2.2. Network Management System
A Network Management System (NMS) is the entity which requests
information from energy-using devices. It may be a system which also
implements other network management functions, or one that only deals
with energy. It may be limited to monitoring energy use, or it may
implement control functions (based on eman, other protocols, or
both).
2.3. Energy
At present, the eman framework only addresses electricity use. It is
plausible, and likely, that a future version of it will extend to
other forms of energy (e.g. methane, steam, and hot/cold water), and
even to non-energy quantities (e.g. temperature and flow).
3. Use Contexts
This section reviews the applications that the framework is intended
to be suitable for. These vary according to the nature of devices
involved, and the institutional environment (building type,
management approach, and purpose). The other documents specify
nothing about the network management system (NMS).
3.1. Management context
Buildings vary in scale from those with thousands of occupants, down
to those with few or even none, with similar ranges in relevant floor
areas. Some of these buildings have people with a job function that
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specifically covers energy management, and in others, no one actively
pays attention to the topic.
3.1.1. Highly managed
Some network environments are closely monitored for what devices are
introduced to it, their characteristics and capabilities, and the
functions they provide; many data centers are managed this way.
These are more likely to use advanced features of energy management
technology, including accounting for multiple power supplies for
products, use of power control, and more attention to power
distribution. They also are more likely to be concerned with power
quality characteristics.
The NMS in these contexts may be integrated with systems for
functional control of devices. For a data center, the primary focus
is the IT equipment it contains, though the devices that provide
power (reliability, conditioning, distribution, and/or control) and
those that do space conditioning are also likely to be monitored
through the NMS. Monitoring data may be obtained frequently to
closely track a dynamic usage environment.
3.1.2. Loosely managed
Other environments are not actively managed at all. Devices enter or
leave the network on their own terms, and are fundamentally
autonomous. Power control is not utilized at all, and the goal of
the energy management facility is to simply understand what is going
on, not to actively manage it. Most residential buildings are an
example of this type of network, where there is no personnel or
procedures for active network management. Power quality and capacity
are essentially never a concern.
The NMS in a loosely managed environment should be as automatic as
possible, so that the user can get useful information with little or
no effort. No functional control is involved. Such environments
will have a mixture of devices that can report power information as
well as many that cannot. The NMS is principally tracking long-term
trends and so information gathering is usually not frequent.
3.1.3. Hybrids
Most network environments have elements of these two extremes, both
sets of devices of each sort, as well as devices that are managed in
an intermediate form. Commercial buildings are commonly of this
form, with some devices being highly managed, and others only loosely
tracked.
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The NMS for a hybrid must be able to accomodate a diverse set of
devices and is likely to track some closely, and others much less so.
3.2. Building types
The EMAN facility is designed to be used in any building type (though
the specific needs of industrial buildings have not yet been
considered). Core building types are residential, commercial, and
vehicle. In the United States, buildings account for just over 70%
of electricity use, with this split almost evenly between residential
and commercial.
The cases of multi-tenant buildings (residential and commercial)
noted below raise the possibility of a device reporting to more than
one NMS.
3.2.1. Residential
Residential buildings usually have no existing infrastructure for
reporting energy use of devices within them. There are products
available that can monitor and track whole-building use, either from
added hardware, or by leveraging a communicating meter. However,
this gives no visibilty to how much electricity is being consumed by
each device. There are expensive systems available for houses that
integrate control of many systems (e.g. climate control, lighting,
security, entertainment) that can incorporate tracking of usage times
and so well approximate energy use, but these are generally
proprietary and not IP-based.
Residential buildings that incorporate multiple units are best dealt
with as each unit being a separate building for NMS purposes.
Privacy and security both preclude sharing much information outside
the NMS, except for services that are centrally provided (e.g. hot
water or space conditioning). Such buildings also have energy used
in common areas and for common functions.
The term Home Energy Gateway is sometimes used to denote a
demarcation point between devices in a building and the outside
world. These gateways can also perform some active monitoring and
control functions. There is no need for the architecture of a
building network to be different in houses from other building types
so that this is really just a specific example of a building network
gateway.
3.2.2. Commercial
Commercial buildings vary enormously in scale, with some smaller than
a typical house, to entire campuses of multi-story buildings.
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Smaller buildings share many characteristics with houses in terms of
technology and management styles. Larger buildings usually have some
sorts of building control systems, though usually there are several
systems for individual types of functions, and most are not IP-based.
Thus, while some energy information can usually be extracted
digitally, it is usually not comprehensive, and often derived from
proprietary systems. With increasing building size, it is more
likely that someone has energy management as an explicit job
function.
Some commercial buildings have the multi-tenant character of some
residential buildings, though the degree to which services are the
responsibility of the building owner is usually greater than with
residential.
3.2.3. Data Centers
A data center is technically an industrial building, but for eman
purposes it has special interest and so is treated separately. These
are highly managed environments and are most likely to use the most
advanced and complex features of eman, and have more sophisticated
mechanisms for power distribution and control, including use of power
distribution units. They are also likely to see the quickest uptake
of the protocol. Thus, their importance for eman is out of scale
with their portion of global electricity use (a few percent).
3.2.4. Other industrial buildings
Industrial buildings in general use electricity for both process and
non-process loads. Non-process loads are similar to those in other
building types. Process loads have not yet been considered in the
eman process.
3.2.5. Vehicles
While it may initially seem curious to treat automobiles, airplanes,
and boats as types of buildings, for purposes of energy management,
it is quite appropriate. They are generally self-contained
structures with electricity distribution for a variety of uses (some
infrastructure and some occupant oriented). Electricity is typically
more expensive in energy and carbon terms than for fixed buildings
and may have constrained capacity, so the reason to be concerned with
energy management is even greater with vehicles. Many vehicles can
connect to the electricity grid when stationary.
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3.3. Device types
The EMAN facility is designed to be used for any device type. Its
design and usage specifically takes account of two primary types:
electronic devices, and all others.
3.3.1. Information technology
For many years, the only devices on IP networks were computers and
network equipment. To these were added other types of information
technology devices, such as printers and storage. These devices are
at the core of EMAN and will see the widest initial use of EMAN
reporting.
3.3.2. Other electronic devices
Information technology is a specific subset of the general category
of "electronic" devices - those which have information as their
primary function. Even televisions have a primary purpose of
displaying information, and thus the traditional category of
entertainment consumer electronics can be logically grouped under
information technology. These devices are seeing rapid uptake of IP
connectivity, and the distinction between IT and other electronic
devices blurring.
3.3.3. Non-electronic devices
"Electronics" are devices whose primary function is information so
that "non-electronics" is everything else in buildings, such as
lighting, appliances, and equipment for space conditioning. This
term does not imply that they have no electronic components.
4. Other topics
This section explores other topics relevant to energy management and
eman.
4.1. Power distribution
An aspect of energy reporting that may not be initially apparent is
how it can support understanding of power distribution systems. That
is, different collections of devices in a building may be in
different 'domains' of electricity distribution, with a common fate
(e.g. downstream of a circuit breaker), or under the same electricity
meter. This is accomplished two ways: via reporting by products
which have a power distribution function themselves (e.g. a Power
Distribution Unit or an Ethernet switch that supports Power over
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Ethernet), or by products self-identifying the domain they are a part
of (usually by manual configuration).
In the past, few buildings had complex power distribution, with most
simply a tree of circuit breakers, and just a few levels of AC power
utilized. Today, an increasing number have additional features, such
as uninterruptable power supplies, low-voltage DC powered devices,
local generation, and storage. Power reporting mechanisms such as
eman will need to have some understanding of these features.
4.2. Discovery
A Network Management System requires some method of collecting a list
of the entities on the network that it needs to be cognizant of, both
when it initially begins operation, and maintaining this on an
ongoing basis as the population of devices evolves. There are three
basic methods: protocol, manual, and opportunistic. A NMS can
utilize more than one method.
In the protocol approach, the NMS periodically broadcasts a request
for any EMAN reporting entity to identify itself to the NMS. For
each entity that replies, the NMS queries it for the specific
information it has.
In the manual approach, the identity of each device to be managed is
provided to the NMS. Usually, additional information will also be
provided, such as functional relationships among devices, policies to
be employed (e.g. prioritization of the importance of each device),
and control strategies (e.g. under what conditions a device should be
have its power supply removed or reinstated).
In the opportunistic approach, the NMS observes the network to notice
when a new device appears, then queries it for EMAN capabilities.
A NMS may also participate in one or more service discovery protocols
to determine when a new device appears, though as none of these
protocols are universal, this will always be an incomplete method. A
NMS also has to deal with the fact that some devices will eventually
disappear from the network and need to be expired from its databases.
Also, some devices will be only intermittently on the network, either
from being physically absent some of the time, or powered down to a
low-power state in which they can't respond to EMAN queries.
4.3. Identity
Eman needs to report basic characteristics of the "identity" of a
device for the NMS to know how to interpret the information. That
is, while the IP and MAC addresses of a device are essential to know,
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they are by no means sufficient. Other aspects of identity include
what a device is (a general category as a person would describe it),
its brand and model, and a locally determined name useful for
building occupants.
5. Related Standards and Activities
This section reviews related standards and other activities that have
some relationship to the EMAN protocol. A key point is that eman
reports data on individual devices. Many standards are oriented to
entire buildings or other large entities.
5.1. Standards that inform measurement
There are many energy test procedures for specific products. These
generally are for tests conducted in laboratory conditions in
specified configurations to assess energy performance for comparison
to other models or criteria levels. However, EMAN measurements are
not conducted in a laboratory, not under such specified conditions,
and need to be universal across all products, so a "horizontal" test
procedure is more relevant. The most widely used of these is IEC
62301 [IEC-62301] on measurement of standby power . While 62301 was
created by a committee with a mandate on household appliances, it has
been designed to be universal for any product commonly found in
residential or commercial buildings, and is referenced in test
procedures for appliances, electronics, and other devices. It was
originally published in 2005, with a second edition finalized in
2011.
5.2. Standards that inform reporting
Energy reporting over networks is a relatively new service. Few
devices had the hardware ability to measure power, and few of the
rest made an attempt to estimate it. Further, for power state,
devices could only report when they were fully on, so never could
report themselves when in a low power state. Finally, the ability to
remotely apply or remove power from a device has been confined to
very specific usage environments.
5.2.1. DMTF
The Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) has specified
communication of power state information.
The DMTF Common Information Model (CIM) includes information about
power states.
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5.2.2. Ecma SDC
The Ecma International committee on Smart Data Centre (TC38-SDC
[Ecma-SDC]) is in the process of defining semantics for management of
entities in a data center such as servers, storage, network
equipment, etc. It covers energy as one of many functional resources
or attributes of systems for measurement and/or control. It only
defines terms and variables, and does not reference any specific
protocol. Its goal is to enable interoperability of such protocols
by ensuring a common semantic model across them.
The SDC process is still underway, with a timeframe similar to EMAN.
There seems to be no fundamental barrier to the two efforts to
harmonize on aspects they have in common. These include identity,
power states, power levels, accumulated energy use, and tracking of
time.
5.3. Other Standards and Activities
While manufacturers may implement EMAN capabilities in their
products, their are other organizations that may also do this.
Future standards may reference EMAN as functionality that more
comprehensive systems rely on (e.g. using reported power state for
functional purposes). They may also define extensions to or
particular uses of the EMAN facility.
In future, energy standards, both voluntary and mandatory, may reward
or require use of EMAN capabilities. For example, the Energy Star
program already references other specific network technologies in a
variety of its specifications. In fact, the initial framework
document for revising the Energy Star Computer specification [ESTAR]
references the IETF eman activity . The most likely use of EMAN
would be simply for a device to be able to report on its own basic
status as defined by EMAN, such as identity, power state, power
level, and accumulated energy.
5.3.1. Smart Grid
There are many definitions of what constitutes the "Smart Grid". In
the most general sense, it is the application of information
technology to our electricity system, so that the EMAN framework is
an excellent example of that. Alternatively, it can describe using
information technology to improve the electricity grid, from the
power plant through transmission and distribution systems and ending
at the meter. In this case, the EMAN framework has no connection to
the Smart Grid. The most common definitions of the Smart Grid
acknowledge that what occurs in buildings is different from the
utility-managed grid, but specify some communication directly between
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the grid and end-use devices. The EMAN framework does not anticipate
communication with entities outside the building, but rather only
with a local NMS. The NMS could communicate with the grid, but that
is well outside the EMAN scope and framework. End-use devices can
still coordinate with the grid through other protocols, either in
one-way communication (receiving demand response or direct price
signals from the grid), or in two-way communication with the grid.
6. Security Considerations
The energy management facilities discussed here raise a number of
security considerations. While not a part of the current drafts, the
ability of one device to control the power state of a second
connected device can be a problem if they do not share the same
management goal. This can be either the act of powering down a
device (e.g. from on to sleep or off), rendering it unable to perform
ordinary services it might otherwise accomplish, or powering the
device up, and consequently using energy resources not otherwise
desired. Beyond control, simple information about the current or
historic energy use of a device can indicate details of occupancy of
the main person using the device, or of applications running on the
device.
The capabilities described in this document do not introduce any new
capabilities for security. Rather, any device that implements them
must use existing security intrastructure and policies.
7. IANA Considerations
This memo creates several possible actions for IANA. First is a
single canonical listing of "identity" of a device, in terms of what
it is. Second is possible enumeration of power states, and/or
functional states.
8. Acknowledgements
This memo was inspired by discussions with Benoit Claise, Emmanual
Tychon, Juergen Quittek, Chris Verges, John Parello, Rolf Winter, and
Bill Mielke.
9. Informative References
[RFC3410] Case, J., Mundy, R., Partain, D., and B. Stewart,
"Introduction and Applicability Statements for Internet-
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Standard Management Framework", RFC 3410, December 2002.
[IEC-62301]
IEC TC 59 / MT 9, "IEC 63301 - Measurement of Standby
Power", February 2011.
[Ecma-SDC]
Ecma TC38 / SDC Task Group, "Smart Data Centre Resource
Monitoring and Control (DRAFT)", March 2011.
[ESTAR] US EPA, "Energy Star Computer Specification Discussion
Document, http://energystar.gov/ia/partners/
prod_development/revisions/downloads/computer/
Computers_V6_Discussion_Document.pdf", March 2011.
Author's Address
Bruce Nordman
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
1 Cyclotron Road, 90-4000
Berkeley 94720-8136
US
Phone: +1 510 486 7089
Email: bnordman@lbl.gov
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