A method carried out by a broadband gateway (102, 200) communicatively coupled to a plurality of devices (104, 152), wherein said broadband gateway (102, 200) is operable to handle at least one physical layer connection to at least one corresponding network access service provider (120, 170): providing an energy management service to said plurality of devices (104, 152), wherein said provided energy management service comprises: storing energy-related information associated with one or more of said plurality of devices (104, 152); and managing operation of said one or more of said plurality of devices (104, 152) based on said energy-related information, wherein said management enables adjusting energy consumption of one or more of said plurality of devices (104, 152); characterized in that said energy management service comprises configuring or adjusting interactions between said broadband gateway (102, 200) and said plurality of devices (104, 152), and among said plurality of devices (104, 152); wherein said broadband gateway (102, 200) is operable to determine characteristics including transmission bitrates, type of physical layer used, mode of operation, mode of transmission, and/or communication paths or routes corresponding to one or more communications links between at least some of said plurality of devices (104, 152); said broadband gateway (102, 200) is operable to determine capabilities of said some of said plurality of devices (104, 152) utilizing said one or more communications links including the capability to reconfigure the physical layer speed and/or scheduling of packet transmission; and based on said determined capabilities or characteristics, said broadband gateway (102, 200) is operable to adjust, modify or reconfigure said physical layers, transmission scheduling, and/or network stack based buffering corresponding to said one or more communications links. storing energy-related information associated with one or more of said plurality of devices (104, 152); and managing operation of said one or more of said plurality of devices (104, 152) based on said energy-related information, wherein said management enables adjusting energy consumption of one or more of said plurality of devices (104, 152); characterized in that said energy management service comprises configuring or adjusting interactions between said broadband gateway (102, 200) and said plurality of devices (104, 152), and among said plurality of devices (104, 152); wherein said broadband gateway (102, 200) is operable to determine characteristics including transmission bitrates, type of physical layer used, mode of operation, mode of transmission, and/or communication paths or routes corresponding to one or more communications links between at least some of said plurality of devices (104, 152); said broadband gateway (102, 200) is operable to determine capabilities of said some of said plurality of devices (104, 152) utilizing said one or more communications links including the capability to reconfigure the physical layer speed and/or scheduling of packet transmission; and based on said determined capabilities or characteristics, said broadband gateway (102, 200) is operable to adjust, modify or reconfigure said physical layers, transmission scheduling, and/or network stack based buffering corresponding to said one or more communications links.