C.Adaptation of the power supply chain and cooling overhead
The assumption that the network elements couple the power consumption to the traffic load--i.e. a power-proportional network element and network behavior is established--leads to variable electrical loads which energy converting elements in central offices have to handle. In particular during time periods of low traffic demands the energy converting elements in central offices then work at non-optimum operating points which lead to increased relative power losses. A modular controlled approach for energy conversion that switches the power conversion capacity of the power converting elements in steps--as described in --permits the adaptation of the power supply chain to the variable network element power draws observed in load -adaptive network operation. This leads to an overall stabilized level of efficiency of the power supply