Green Routing in Software-Defined Data Center Networks Based on OpenNaaS

Abstract

Today’s data center networks such as Fat-tree and BCube, are over-provisioned for multi-path routing; and they suffer from inefficient power usage when traffic is not heavy. Green routing technologies are effective approaches that can fix this problem. In this paper we present a new solution to implementing green routing: we integrated energy-aware routing capabilities in OpenNaaS to make a centralized routing decision of scheduling traffic, which leverage SDN technologies to decouple data forwarding from routing decision. This method is efficient due to managing the network as a whole rather than as a number of individual devices. Based on measured power information, energy-aware OpenNaaS can calculate a green routing path and configure the forwarding rules for the path. In the end, we present a practical use case to demonstrate its functionality and evaluate its effect on power saving by simulation.