D-Link plans to get a jump on the “green Ethernet” movement by releasing power management capabilities in switches and other networking products next year.

Although the IEEE is developing the 802.3 specification for Energy Efficient Ethernet, D-Link said that it plans to introduce auto-sensing capabilities so that products can detect when they can power down to save energy.

“We think there’s enough demand by customers to justify going with power-down, idle and other functions now,” said D-Link UK general manager Chris Davies. “These are all sure to be features of the standard anyway.”

Davies said that standardised products could take until 2012 to be commercially available.

Force10 Networks chief marketing director Steve Garrison agreed that a standard for low-power Ethernet remains a distance away.

"It'll be many years because it's early days in the standards process,” Garrison said. “It's not even a standard yet, it's a CFI – call for interest. First you have to submit research to the IEEE, then form a study group and then vote to create a standard."

The 802.3 group had its first meeting in January this year with Cisco, Broadcom and AMCC giving presentations. Supporters say the effort could save about $450m per year in energy costs in the US.

However, some watchers doubt whether the standard will allow equipment to throttle back sufficiently to save significant cost.