Out-of-band signaling and energy consumption based routing
A processing system including at least one processor deployed in a communication network may obtain at least a first energy usage indicator of at least a first network element of the communication network, obtain a selection of an energy factor-based routing for at least one packet, and route the at least one packet in response to the selection of the energy factor-based routing, where the energy factor-based routing is based upon the at least the first energy usage indicator of the at least the first network element.
1 . A method comprising:
obtaining, by a processing system including at least one processor deployed in a communication network, at least a first energy usage indicator of at least a first network element of the communication network, wherein the at least the first energy usage indicator comprises an indicator of a type of energy source of the at least the first network element, and wherein the indicator of the type of energy source is one of a plurality of indicators including at least two indicators from among: a natural gas energy source indicator, a coal energy source indicator, a nuclear energy source indicator, a wind energy source indicator, a solar energy source indicator, a geothermal energy source indicator, or a hydroelectric energy source indicator;
obtaining, by the processing system, a selection of an energy factor-based routing for at least one packet, wherein the selection is included in the at least one packet and wherein the selection distinguishes the energy factor-based routing from a non-energy factor-based routing; and
routing, by the processing system, the at least one packet in response to the selection of the energy factor-based routing, wherein the energy factor-based routing is based upon the at least the first energy usage indicator of the at least the first network element.
2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the selection is contained in a header options field of the at least one packet.
3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one packet is routed via a first communication mode, and wherein the at least the first energy usage indicator of the at least the first network element is obtained via a second communication mode that is different from the first communication mode.
4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the second communication mode comprises routing protocol messages.
5 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the first communication mode comprises a first logical network of the communication network, and wherein the second communication mode comprises a second logical network of the communication network.
6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the first logical network comprises a first network slice, and wherein the second logical network comprises a second network slice.
7 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the selection is obtained via the second communication mode.
8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the energy factor-based routing comprises a policy-based routing in accordance with a plurality of energy usage indicators of a plurality of network elements of the communication network.
9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the obtaining comprises obtaining the plurality of energy usage indicators of the plurality of network elements of the communication network.
10 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the energy factor-based routing is based upon the plurality of energy usage indicators of the plurality of network elements and at least one of:
link costs for links between the plurality of network elements;
network delay of at least one of: the plurality of network elements or the links between the plurality of network elements; or
a number of hops between network elements from a source to a destination within the communication network.
11 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least the first energy usage indicator further comprises at least one energy efficiency metric of the at least the first network element.
12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the at least one energy efficiency metric comprises at least one of:
an energy utilization per unit time; or
an energy utilization per data volume.
13 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the processing system comprises a processing system of a second network element of the communication network.
14 . The method of claim 13 , wherein each of the at least the first network element and the second network element comprises one of:
a switch;
a router; or
a gateway.
15 . The method of claim 13 , further comprising:
transmitting, by the processing system, at least a second energy usage indicator of the second network element.
16 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the at least the second energy usage indicator comprises at least a second energy efficiency metric, the method further comprising:
calculating, by the processing system, the at least the second energy efficiency metric.
17 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by a processing system including at least one processor when deployed in a communication network, cause the processing system to perform operations, the operations comprising:
obtaining at least a first energy usage indicator of at least a first network element of the communication network, wherein the at least the first energy usage indicator comprises an indicator of a type of energy source of the at least the first network element, and wherein the indicator of the type of energy source is one of a plurality of indicators including at least two indicators from among: a natural gas energy source indicator, a coal energy source indicator, a nuclear energy source indicator, a wind energy source indicator, a solar energy source indicator, a geothermal energy source indicator, or a hydroelectric energy source indicator;
obtaining a selection of an energy factor-based routing for at least one packet, wherein the selection is included in the at least one packet and wherein the selection distinguishes the energy factor-based routing from a non-energy factor-based routing; and
routing the at least one packet in response to the selection of the energy factor-based routing, wherein the energy factor-based routing is based upon the at least the first energy usage indicator of the at least the first network element.
18 . An apparatus comprising:
a processing system including at least one processor; and
a computer-readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by the processing system when deployed in a communication network, cause the processing system to perform operations, the operations comprising:
obtaining at least a first energy usage indicator of at least a first network element of the communication network, wherein the at least the first energy usage indicator comprises an indicator of a type of energy source of the at least the first network element, and wherein the indicator of the type of energy source is one of a plurality of indicators including at least two indicators from among: a natural gas energy source indicator, a coal energy source indicator, a nuclear energy source indicator, a wind energy source indicator, a solar energy source indicator, a geothermal energy source indicator, or a hydroelectric energy source indicator;
obtaining a selection of an energy factor-based routing for at least one packet, wherein the selection is included in the at least one packet and wherein the selection distinguishes the energy factor-based routing from a non-energy factor-based routing; and
routing the at least one packet in response to the selection of the energy factor-based routing, wherein the energy factor-based routing is based upon the at least the first energy usage indicator of the at least the first network element.
19 . The apparatus of claim 18 , wherein the selection is contained in a header options field of the at least one packet.
20 . The apparatus of claim 18 , wherein the at least one packet is routed via a first communication mode, and wherein the at least the first energy usage indicator of the at least the first network element is obtained via a second communication mode that is different from the first communication mode.