A survey on energy efficiency in software defined networks

Wide deployment and dense usage of computer networks may cause excessive energy consumption due to the increase in probability of network congestion, frame collisions and packet dropping rates resulting from late-received frames. Besides, based on the dramatic increase in network complexity with wireless, mobile and split tunnel connections, weak visibility into network flows and high cost of some of public and private network services, current networks can also be implied as inefficient in terms of both performance and economy. Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is a novel networking architecture, which provides a directly programmable and (logically) centralized network control, separates network control from forwarding, and enables programmable network components. SDN can have a significant role in reducing the aforementioned excessive energy consumption caused by data centers, network components, and end hosts. In this paper,1 we examine the principles, benefits, and drawbacks of up-to-date SDN approaches that focus on energy efficiency. We also provide a brief comparison of possible energy gain ratios of existing approaches, discussion on open issues and a guideline for future research.