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Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Power in Routers and Switches (and Quite a Bit More) - PSOGRN-2161#

Cisco Live Europe 2026 (Amsterdam) digest Program Core pick Amsterdam · 9–13 February 2026

Abstract

LJ Wobker (Cisco), Lane Wigley (Cisco)

  • Why: Power and thermal are now first-order constraints in DC design — with AI racks pushing 150-250 kW, understanding what actually moves power consumption in network gear (and what doesn't) is core systems knowledge, not facilities trivia.
  • What: A systematic treatment of power in network equipment: provisioning vs. typical vs. peak; per-component breakdowns; effects of traffic and temperature; PSU efficiency; optics power; conversion loss; redundancy models; thermals in high-power systems; and which off-peak "power saving" measures actually help — supported by system-test examples (from abstract only).
  • How: Measurement-driven: system testing examples are used to ground claims about how load, temperature, and configuration change real draw.
  • Where applicable: General across router/switch platforms; concrete numbers will be Cisco-specific but the methodology (typical vs. worst-case provisioning, optics power accounting) is broadly applicable.