Towards enabling green routing services in real networks

Energy-efficient/green routing protocols aim at optimizing the energy consumption of networks. Such solutions usually require to take coordinated actions between routers to setup a green network topology. Green routing protocols have been studied theoretically and using simulations; however, they have not been implemented or tested yet in real routing protocols. Therefore, it is difficult to assess the viability and efficiency of such green solutions in real operational networks. In this article, we aim at bridging the gap between theory and practice in the field of green routing. We report the lessons learned when enabling an energy-efficient routing protocol built on top of the OSPF implementation of Quagga, a popular software router used in operational networks. Firstly, we show that the coordination between green-enabled routers, which requires exchanging special or modified routing information, can be added without introducing new message types and with minimum changes to the routing protocol implementation while maintaining full compatibility with legacy routers. Secondly, we consider the modifications that should be done to prevent inconsistencies since green-enabled routers need to exchange special routing updates that affect the calculation of routing tables. Finally, we demonstrate that our first prototype can draw a more energy-efficient network topology, while preserving the stability of the network, its reconfiguration capabilities and compatibility between green and legacy routers.