A Real-Time Energy-Efficient Monitoring and Management Framework for Sustainability of F5G-Advanced Networks

The Fifth-Generation (5G) network offers higher network capacity and edge processing, while the transition to Sixth-Generation (6G) will further enhance these capabilities adding support for more advanced devices. To address these emerging challenges in future telecommunication industry, the ETSI Fifth Generation Fixed Network (F5G) group is actively working to enhance the F5G-A architecture capabilities such as guaranteed reliable experience, real-time resilient link and green agile optical network. A key priority of the F5G group is to develop a greener network solution by enhancing overall energy efficiency, especially in routing and computing. This induces the practical challenges related to comprehensively understanding energy utilization across the entire network infrastructure. These requirements align with the concept of an energy-efficient monitoring system, which aims to track, analyze and manage energy usage to enable autonomous network reconfiguration. To this end, we introduce a novel distributed energy monitoring system that empowers network operators to collect, process, and analyze energy utilization at various points in the network. By offering these insights, this system is a pathway to network automation. Additionally, the proposed system offers capabilities to measure energy generation of both local and external sources, as well as energy consumed by heating and cooling subsystems. We evaluated the proposed monitoring architecture on a lab testbed demonstration by detecting the underutilized port, rerouting the traffic to alternative path, prior to enabling low power port mode to save energy. The results validated the practicality and functionality of our proposed approach. The findings contribute to achieving energy-efficient routing and computing, thereby supporting longterm future sustainability goals.