Energy consumption has become a limiting factor for deploying large-scale distributed infrastructures. This work 1 seeks to improve the energy efficiency of backbone networks by providing an intra-domain Software Defined Network (SDN) approach to selectively turn off a subset of links. We propose the STREETE framework (SegmenT Routing based Energy Efficient Traffic Engineering) that dynamically adapts the number of powered-on links to the traffic load. The core of the solution relies on SPRING, a novel protocol being standardized by IETF. It is also known under the name of Segment Routing. The algorithms have been implemented and evaluated using the OMNET++ simulator. Experimental results show that the consumption of 44% of links can be reduced while preserving good quality of service.

International audienceThe continuous growth of traffic and the energy consumption of network equipments can limit the deployment of large-scale distributed infrastructure. This work aims to improve the energy efficiency of backbone networks by dynamically adjusting the number of active links according to network load. We propose an intra-domain software-defined network approach to select and turn off a subset of links. The SPRING protocol (a.k.a. segment routing) is used to make our algorithms converge faster. The algorithms—implemented and evaluated using the OMNET++ discrete event simulator—can achieve energy savings of around 44 % when considering real backbone networks

Abstract-Reducing the energy consumed by wired computer networks is a challenge that has been actively investigated over the past few years. A popular mechanism proposed to reduce the consumption aims to put links and line cards to sleep mode during off-peak hours. Such a mechanism, however, decreases the available network capacity and increases the risk of congestion if traffic rises unexpectedly. This paper proposes a solution to rapidly react to network bursts and turn-on sleeping links, which we term as SegmenT Routing based Energy Efficient Traffic Engineering for switching ON (STREETE-ON). The proposed algorithm was implemented in the OMNeT++ network simulator using state-of-art dynamic graph algorithms. In such a way, we achieved execution times of tens of milliseconds for a 50-node network. Experimental results show that STREETE-ON can effectively prevent network congestion, avoid turningon unneeded links, and preserve good energy-efficiency of the network.