Reducing power consumption in embedding virtual infrastructures

Network virtualization is considered to be not only an enabler to overcome the inflexibility of the current Internet infrastructure but also an enabler to achieve an energy-efficient Future Internet. Virtual network embedding (VNE) is a critical issue in network virtualization technology. This paper explores a joint power-aware node and link resource allocation approach to handle the VNE problem with the objective of minimizing energy consumption. We first present a generalized power consumption model of embedding a VN. Then we formulate the problem as a mixed integer program and propose embedding algorithms. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithms perform better than the existing algorithms in terms of the power consumption in the overprovisioned scenarios.