An energy-efficient data transfer strategy with link rate control for Cloud

Data transfer is an indispensable step that is widely involved in the maintenance and processing of Cloud data. Due to rapid growth in Cloud data, methods of reducing the huge energy consumption of data transfer in the Cloud have become a challenge. In this paper, we propose a novel energy-efficient data transfer strategy called LRCDT (Link Rate Controlled Data Transfer). By scheduling bandwidth in a link rate controlled fashion, LRCDT intends to reduce the energy consumption specifically for data transfer that does not require the maximum transfer speed, which is referred to as 'lazy' data transfer, so to achieve the energy-efficient data transfer goal in the overall term. The result in our simulation indicates that LRCDT is able to reduce energy consumption by up to 63% when compared to existing data transfer strategies.