Energy-saving Methods in the Operation of Virtual Networks Based on Divided Time Slices

Reducing energy consumption has also become an important way to reduce expenditures and increase revenue for ISP. For solving the problem of dynamically changing network-flow of virtual network in runtime, we first analyze relations and differences between virtual network and IP network on energy-saving issues. We secondly model the makeup of energy consumption in virtual network, and determine the object of energy-saving in virtual network at. Finally we propose the solutions to this energysaving problem. The solutions can be described as follows: (1) based on the historical data of daily network-flow, we divide one day into two time slices, and one is called idle time slice, the other is called busy time slice; (2) we design the dynamic switch-off algorithm and run it at the beginning of idle time slice, and we use former algorithms to be started at the beginning of busy time slice; (3) in the dynamic switch-off algorithm we determine the method to select virtual networks and the method to remap; (4) we apply roulette wheel to select virtual networks, in the selection method we consider both current influences on energy-saving and influences in the future. Simulation results show that the dynamic switch-off algorithm can effectively select virtual networks, and the whole solution performs well in energy aware virtual network in runtime.