Energy Efficiency of Kernel and User Space Level VPN Solutions in AIoT Networks

The ability to process data locally using complex algorithms is becoming increasingly important in Internet of Things (IoT) contexts. Numerous factors contribute to this trend, including the requirement for immediate response, the need to protect data privacy/security, a lack of adequate infrastructure, and the desire to reduce costs. Due to the extensive hardware requirements (in terms of required computing power, memory, and other resources) for handling various scenarios, edge devices are typically configured to utilize general-purpose operating systems, primarily GNU/Linux. However, energy efficiency remains a critical requirement for this devices, especially in battery-powered scenarios (where energy inefficiency could make the device completely inoperable). Local data processing usually minimizes, but not entirely eliminates, data exchange with the environment. Along with energy costs of data processing, it is critical to also consider the energy efficiency of data protection when communicating with the environment. In this article, we evaluate the energy efficiency of kernel-level and user-space-level communication protection solutions: WireGuard and OpenSSL. These systems are evaluated on a range of hardware platforms, including Raspberry Pi 3, Nvidia Jetson NANO, Nvidia Jetson TX2, and Nvidia Jetson AGX Xavier. The energy efficiency of these systems was determined by examining long transfer streams with maximum channel/CPU utilization. We discovered that determining the energy efficiency of a device or protocol is difficult due to the high reliance on factors such as communication speed and direction.