Network device energy saving method, storage medium, and electronic apparatus

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a network device energy saving method, a storage medium, and an electronic apparatus. The method comprises: on the basis of topological data information of an SDN network, predicting and acquiring predicted port traffic of each network device port of the SDN network; on the basis of actual port traffic of each network device port, acquiring the maximum port traffic of each network device port as fiber break protection traffic; and performing network device energy saving on the SDN network on the basis of the predicted port traffic and the fiber break protection traffic.

Description

Network equipment energy saving method, storage medium and electronic device

[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0002] The present disclosure is based on Chinese patent application CN202410170947.0 filed on February 6, 2024, entitled “Network Equipment Energy Saving Method, Storage Medium and Electronic Device”, and claims the priority of the patent application, and all the contents disclosed therein are incorporated into the present disclosure by reference. Technical Field

[0003] The embodiments of the present disclosure relate to the field of communications, and in particular, to a network device energy saving method, a storage medium, and an electronic device. Background Art

[0004] Energy consumption of 5G communication equipment accounts for a significant portion of operators' expenses. In line with energy conservation and emission reduction requirements, operators have clearly stated the need to reduce power consumption of bearer equipment, making power consumption control a must-have capability for network equipment. However, energy-saving operations often come with a decrease in equipment processing performance, and in severe cases, can even lead to network service interruptions.

[0005] In recent years, Software Defined Network (SDN) technology has received widespread attention. SDN controllers have the characteristic of separating forwarding and control, and can manage most network devices through SDN controllers.

[0006] Under an SDN controller, network traffic typically uses primary and backup protection to ensure normal service operation. Under normal circumstances, traffic flows along the working path. If the working path becomes unreachable due to a fiber break or other reasons, traffic instantly switches to the backup path. The working and backup paths for a service share the same source and destination network element ports and are composed of a series of network element ports, but they traverse as many different links as possible. Typically, a service has one working path and one backup path; in other cases, multiple working and backup paths may exist.

[0007] Therefore, it can be inferred that estimating the traffic limit of a single port to achieve device energy conservation is not feasible. In most cases, the traffic limit of a single port is the traffic limit for the working path and does not take into account the backup traffic. If a fiber break occurs, the backup traffic will be routed to that port, causing a sudden increase in traffic. Due to the device's energy conservation limitations, the traffic limit will be reduced, potentially leading to service interruption. Summary of the Invention

[0008] The embodiments of the present disclosure provide a network device energy-saving method, a storage medium, and an electronic device to at least solve the problem of service interruption caused by fiber breakage and the like in related technologies.

[0009] According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, a network device energy-saving method is provided, comprising: predicting and obtaining the port predicted traffic of each network device port of a software-defined network (SDN) network based on topology data information of the SDN network; obtaining the maximum port traffic of each network device port as the fiber break protection traffic based on the actual port traffic of each network device port; and performing network device energy saving on the SDN network based on the port predicted traffic and the fiber break protection traffic.

[0010] According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, a computer-readable storage medium is provided, in which a computer program is stored. The computer program is configured to execute the steps of any one of the above method embodiments when running.

[0011] According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, an electronic device is provided, including a memory and a processor, wherein the memory stores a computer program, and the processor is configured to run the computer program to perform the steps in any one of the above method embodiments. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0012] FIG1 is a hardware structure block diagram of a computer terminal of a network device energy-saving method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0013] FIG2 is a diagram of a network architecture for running a method for energy saving of a network device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0014] FIG3 is a flow chart of a method for energy saving of a network device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0015] FIG4 is a flow chart showing a method for energy saving for a network device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0016] Hereinafter, embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings and in conjunction with embodiments.

[0017] The terms "first," "second," and the like in the specification and claims of the present disclosure and the above-mentioned drawings are used to distinguish similar objects, but are not necessarily used to describe a specific sequence or order.

[0018] In some cases, manual decisions are made to identify equipment resources that are not carrying services, which are then manually powered off and then restored when services are needed. This approach relies on manual decision-making, places high demands on operations and maintenance personnel, is unsuitable for large-scale deployment, and is prone to human error. Furthermore, with limited controllable components, only configurable operations at the operations and maintenance level can be performed, making refined management impossible.

[0019] In some cases, energy-saving actions are controlled based on thresholds set based on the traffic volume transmitted by the device, or based on one or more thresholds. This approach requires predicting the state of the network and issuing energy-saving instructions to the device to control its energy conservation. This approach relies on external commands, resulting in delayed response and poor reliability. When network communication failures occur, timely response is not possible, leading to further losses.

[0020] In some cases, by using energy saving as a routing strategy, this method affects the original routing method; the method adopted by this patent does not affect the original routing strategy, has the least impact on the routing strategy of the SDN controller, and directly acts on energy saving.

[0021] The network device energy-saving method provided by the disclosed embodiments is implemented based on an SDN controller. It leverages the SDN controller's global view to obtain the maximum flow rate of each device port and then reduces the maximum flow rate of the corresponding network device to an acceptable maximum flow rate range. This disclosed embodiment only collects port traffic, not service traffic, resulting in lower energy consumption and applicable to a wider range of scenarios. It can support normal service switching in fiber-break scenarios, meeting operators' energy conservation and emission reduction needs, ensuring energy savings without impacting service transmission.

[0022] The method embodiments provided in the embodiments of the present disclosure can be executed in a mobile terminal, a computer terminal or a similar computing device. Taking operation on a computer terminal as an example, FIG1 is a hardware structure block diagram of a computer terminal of the network device energy-saving method of the embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG1 , the computer terminal may include one or more (only one is shown in FIG1 ) processors 102 (the processor 102 may include but is not limited to a processing device such as a microprocessor MCU or a programmable logic device FPGA) and a memory 104 for storing data, wherein the above-mentioned computer terminal may also include a transmission device 106 and an input and output device 108 for communication functions. It can be understood by those skilled in the art that the structure shown in FIG1 is only for illustration and does not limit the structure of the above-mentioned computer terminal. For example, the computer terminal may also include more or fewer components than those shown in FIG1 , or have a configuration different from that shown in FIG1 .

[0023] The memory 104 can be used to store computer programs, for example, software programs and modules of application software, such as the computer program corresponding to the network device energy saving method in the embodiment of the present disclosure. The processor 102 executes various functional applications and data processing by running the computer program stored in the memory 104, that is, implementing the above-mentioned method. The memory 104 may include a high-speed random access memory, and may also include a non-volatile memory, such as one or more magnetic storage devices, flash memory, or other non-volatile solid-state memory. In some instances, the memory 104 may further include a memory remotely located relative to the processor 102, and these remote memories may be connected to the computer terminal via a network. Examples of the above-mentioned network include, but are not limited to, the Internet, an intranet, a local area network, a mobile communication network, and combinations thereof.

[0024] The transmission device 106 is used to receive or transmit data via a network. A specific example of the aforementioned network may include a wireless network provided by a communications provider of a computer terminal. In one embodiment, the transmission device 106 includes a network interface controller (NIC), which can be connected to other network devices via a base station to enable communication with the Internet. In another embodiment, the transmission device 106 may be a radio frequency (RF) module, which is used to communicate with the Internet wirelessly.

[0025] The embodiment of the present disclosure can run on the network architecture shown in Figure 2. Figure 2 is a network architecture diagram of the network device energy-saving method of the embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in Figure 2, the network architecture includes: network element equipment, SDN controller, and service client, wherein the SDN controller is provided with a southbound interface. As shown in Figure 2, the service client mainly refers to the service configuration client, which is an upper-layer application module of the SDN network. The SDN controller is an application program in the SDN network, responsible for traffic control to ensure an intelligent network. The SDN controller is based on protocols such as Open Flow, allowing the server to tell the switch where to send data packets. The network element device is a network unit or node in a network system, such as a router, switch, etc. The southbound interface is a module for the interaction between the management and control products and the network element, and the protocol is used to enable the controller to collect optical device information.

[0026] The present disclosure provides a method for energy saving of a network device. FIG3 is a flow chart of the method for energy saving of a network device according to the present disclosure. As shown in FIG3 , the flow chart includes the following steps:

[0027] Step S302: predicting and obtaining the port predicted traffic of each network device port of the SDN network based on the topology data information of the SDN network;

[0028] In an exemplary embodiment, before step S302 , the method further includes: using an SDN controller to obtain topology data information of the SDN network.

[0029] In an exemplary embodiment, the topology data information includes at least one of the following: node information of the SDN network; link information of the SDN network; link bandwidth resource information of the SDN network; historical traffic information of network device ports at a preset minute granularity of the SDN network; network device port information of the working path of the SDN network; and network device port information of the backup path of the SDN network.

[0030] In the embodiment of the present disclosure, the preset minute granularity of the network device port historical traffic information can be the historical traffic information of the selected port at a 15-minute granularity. In the embodiment of the present disclosure, the 15-minute granularity is replaceable, mainly for collecting traffic in multiple key time periods in a day.

[0031] In an exemplary embodiment, based on the topology data information of the software-defined network (SDN) network, the port predicted traffic of each network device port of the SDN network is predicted and obtained, including: based on the topology data information, predicting and obtaining the receiving traffic and sending traffic of each network device port; obtaining the maximum value of the receiving traffic and the sending traffic as the port predicted traffic.

[0032] In the embodiment disclosed herein, the maximum flow of a port at a preset minute granularity in the next day is predicted by historical flow. The industry's mature algorithms or similar algorithms that achieve the same effect can be used for prediction, such as prophet, long short-term memory network (LSTM), etc., mainly using the traffic of historical ports to predict the upper limit of the flow at equal intervals in the next day. In the actual implementation process, a physical link connects two ports. In theory, the receiving flow of one of the ports in this pair is equal to the sending flow of the other port. However, due to errors such as actual collection, if the outliers are removed, the two are roughly the same. The flow prediction results are corrected, and the receiving flow and sending flow of the ports at both ends of each link are compared. The maximum value is taken as the receiving flow and sending flow of the final port. The maximum value is equal to the port predicted flow.

[0033] Step S304: obtaining the maximum port flow of each network device port according to the actual port flow of each network device port as the fiber break protection flow;

[0034] In an exemplary embodiment, before step S304, the method further includes: collecting traffic of each network device port in different service combination states to obtain actual port traffic.

[0035] In actual implementation, the actual port traffic is collected, rather than directly using the service traffic at the port as the port traffic. In theory, the total service traffic at the port is equal to the port traffic. In practice, the total service traffic at the port is less than or equal to the port traffic.

[0036] In an exemplary embodiment, based on the actual port flow of each network device port, the maximum port flow of each network device port is obtained as the fiber break protection flow, including: establishing an optimization objective function of the maximum port flow of each network device port in different fiber break states and different service combination states based on the actual port flow; and obtaining the maximum port flow of each network device port as the fiber break protection flow based on the optimization objective function of the maximum port flow.

[0037] In actual implementation, for each port, maximizing the service combination under different fiber-break scenarios is used as the objective function. A linear programming optimization solution is then used to find the maximum value under limited conditions. This yields the maximum possible throughput for the port under different fiber-break scenarios. The maximum value of the fiber-break combination is then taken to determine the fiber-break protection throughput for that port.

[0038] Step S306: Energy saving of network devices in the SDN network is performed based on the port predicted traffic and the fiber break protection traffic.

[0039] In an exemplary embodiment, network equipment energy saving is performed on the SDN network based on the port predicted traffic and the fiber break protection traffic, including: obtaining the actual protection traffic of each network device port based on the port predicted traffic and the fiber break protection traffic; and regulating the network equipment of the SDN network to save energy based on the actual protection traffic.

[0040] During the actual implementation process, the network device controls the corresponding device resources to sleep or cancel the sleep operation according to the actual protection traffic received.

[0041] In an exemplary embodiment, the actual protection flow of each network device port is obtained based on the port predicted flow and the fiber break protection flow, including: obtaining the product of the fiber break protection flow and the preset energy-saving level as the energy-saving protection flow; obtaining the sum of the energy-saving protection flow and the port predicted flow as the actual protection flow.

[0042] Through the above steps, a network device energy-saving method is provided. The method predicts and obtains the predicted port flow rate of each network device port in the SDN network based on the topological data of the SDN network; obtains the maximum port flow rate of each network device port based on the actual port flow rate of each network device port, which serves as the fiber break protection flow rate; and implements network device energy saving in the SDN network based on the predicted port flow rate and the fiber break protection flow rate. This method solves the problem of service interruption caused by fiber breakage and other conditions in related technologies, achieving the effect of avoiding service interruption caused by fiber breakage and other conditions and ensuring user experience.

[0043] Through the description of the above implementation methods, those skilled in the art can clearly understand that the method according to the above embodiment can be implemented by means of software plus the necessary general hardware platform, and of course it can also be implemented by hardware, but in many cases the former is a better implementation method. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the present disclosure is essentially or the part that contributes to the prior art can be embodied in the form of a software product, which is stored in a storage medium (such as ROM / RAM, magnetic disk, optical disk), including a number of instructions for enabling a terminal device (which can be a mobile phone, computer, server, or network device, etc.) to execute the methods described in each embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0044] In the embodiments of the present disclosure, a network device energy-saving device is also provided. The energy-saving device is used to implement the above-mentioned embodiments and preferred embodiments. The details that have been described will not be repeated here. As used below, the term "module" can refer to a combination of software and / or hardware that implements a predetermined function. Although the devices described in the following embodiments are preferably implemented in software, implementation using hardware, or a combination of software and hardware, is also possible and contemplated.

[0045] The network device energy-saving device provided in the embodiments of the present disclosure may include: a prediction module, a protection module, and an energy-saving module. The prediction module is configured to predict and obtain the port predicted traffic of each network device port in the SDN network based on the topological data information of the SDN network. The protection module is configured to obtain the maximum port traffic of each network device port based on the actual port traffic of each network device port, as the fiber break protection traffic. The energy-saving module is configured to perform network device energy saving in the SDN network based on the port predicted traffic and the fiber break protection traffic.

[0046] In the embodiments disclosed herein, the module naming and functional division of the network device energy-saving device are provided for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to be limiting. In actual implementation, the module naming and functional division of the network device energy-saving device may be determined based on actual circumstances, as long as the steps of the network device energy-saving method in the embodiments described above can be implemented.

[0047] In the embodiments of the present disclosure, the above modules can be implemented by software or hardware. For the latter, it can be implemented in the following ways, but not limited to: the above modules are all located in the same processor; or the above modules are located in different processors in any combination.

[0048] An embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a computer-readable storage medium, in which a computer program is stored. The computer program is configured to execute the steps of any one of the above method embodiments when run.

[0049] In an exemplary embodiment, the computer-readable storage medium may include, but is not limited to, various media that can store computer programs, such as a USB flash drive, a read-only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), a mobile hard disk, a magnetic disk, or an optical disk.

[0050] An embodiment of the present disclosure further provides an electronic device, including a memory and a processor, wherein the memory stores a computer program, and the processor is configured to run the computer program to perform the steps in any of the above method embodiments.

[0051] In an exemplary embodiment, the electronic device may further include a transmission device and an input / output device, wherein the transmission device is connected to the processor, and the input / output device is connected to the processor.

[0052] For specific examples in this embodiment, reference may be made to the examples described in the above embodiments and exemplary implementation modes, and this embodiment will not be described in detail here.

[0053] Obviously, those skilled in the art should understand that the modules or steps of the present disclosure described above can be implemented using a general-purpose computing device, they can be concentrated on a single computing device, or distributed across a network composed of multiple computing devices, they can be implemented using program code executable by the computing device, and thus, they can be stored in a storage device and executed by the computing device, and in some cases, the steps shown or described can be performed in a different order than herein, or they can be fabricated into separate integrated circuit modules, or multiple modules or steps can be fabricated into a single integrated circuit module for implementation. Thus, the present disclosure is not limited to any particular combination of hardware and software.

[0054] In order to enable those skilled in the art to better understand the technical solutions of the present disclosure, they are described below in conjunction with specific scenario embodiments.

[0055] Example 1

[0056] In this disclosed embodiment, addressing the need for reduced power consumption in bearer equipment, a network device energy-saving method based on an SDN controller is proposed. This method combines traffic limit prediction with optimization theory to ensure maximum energy savings while maintaining normal service communication. This method can maintain normal service communication even in the event of a single fiber break.

[0057] FIG4 is a flow diagram of a network device energy saving method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, as shown in FIG4 , including the following steps:

[0058] Step S401: setting the energy saving level through the user interface.

[0059] In actual implementation, the default energy-saving level is level one, and users can select devices to perform energy-saving through the user interface.

[0060] Step S402: collecting topology data information of the SDN network.

[0061] In the disclosed embodiments, SDN network topology data includes network node information, link information, link bandwidth resource information, historical traffic information for selected ports at a 15-minute granularity, and ports traversed by working and backup paths. The 15-minute granularity in the disclosed embodiments is optional and primarily collects traffic during multiple key time periods throughout the day.

[0062] Step S403: perform traffic prediction based on the topology data information.

[0063] In actual implementation, historical traffic is used to predict the maximum traffic flow of a port at a 15-minute granularity (the same granularity as in step S402) for the next day. This prediction can be performed using a mature industry algorithm or similar algorithms that achieve equivalent results, such as prophet or LSTM. The core is to use historical port traffic to predict the upper limit of traffic flow at equal intervals for the next day.

[0064] Step S404: Correct the traffic of the device port.

[0065] In actual implementation, a physical link connects two ports. Theoretically, the receive traffic of one port equals the send traffic of the other. However, due to errors in actual data collection, the two traffic flows are roughly the same after removing outliers. The traffic prediction results in step S403 are corrected by comparing the receive and send traffic of the ports at both ends of each link. The maximum value is taken as the final receive and send traffic of the port. This maximum value is equal to the predicted traffic flow of the port.

[0066] Step S405: establishing a working path equation group.

[0067] In actual implementation, actual port traffic is collected rather than directly using the traffic at the port as the port traffic. While theoretically, the sum of all traffic at a port equals the port traffic, in practice, the sum of all traffic at the port is assumed to be less than or equal to the port traffic. An equation can be established for each port, summing all traffic flowing through that port to obtain the actual port traffic. This value is less than the port traffic ceiling predicted in the previous step. In this equation, the traffic volume is an unknown quantity.

[0068] Step S406: Simulate the impact of fiber breakage.

[0069] When a fiber break occurs on a link, services on the working path of the broken link are switched to the backup path. This increases the traffic on the ports passing through the backup path. Multiple services may have backup paths passing through the same port. Simulate fiber breaks on all links in sequence and record the traffic patterns on each port under different fiber break conditions.

[0070] Step S407: Calculate the fiber break protection bandwidth.

[0071] For each port, under different fiber-break scenarios, maximizing the service mix is ​​the objective function. Using the working path equations and traffic flow greater than 0 as two known constraints, a linear programming optimization solution is performed. This solution can be implemented using established algorithms or similar algorithms that achieve equivalent results, such as the simplex method or the dual method. The core goal is to find the maximum value under these constraints. This yields the maximum possible traffic flow for the port under different fiber-break scenarios. The maximum value of the fiber-break combination is then taken to determine the fiber-break protection bandwidth (i.e., the fiber-break protection traffic flow) for that port.

[0072] Step S408: Calculate and obtain the actual protection flow of the port.

[0073] In the embodiment of the present disclosure, the product of the fiber break protection flow and the preset energy-saving level is obtained as the energy-saving protection flow; the sum of the energy-saving protection flow and the port predicted flow is obtained as the actual protection flow.

[0074] Step S409: Send the actual protection traffic to the network device, and the network device performs energy-saving actions.

[0075] According to the received energy-saving bandwidth, that is, the actual protection traffic, the corresponding network device resources are controlled to sleep or cancel the sleep operation.

[0076] In summary, the disclosed embodiments address the energy conservation issues faced by network devices under SDN controllers and provide a network device energy conservation method. This method combines traffic limit prediction with optimization theory to ensure maximum energy conservation and power reduction while maintaining normal service communication. The method provided by the disclosed embodiments can maintain normal service communication even in the event of a single fiber break.

[0077] The network device energy-saving method provided by the disclosed embodiments can be applied to SDN controllers and the network elements they manage. The controller's ability to collect global topology information leverages its global perspective to calculate the maximum flow rate for each port, with the network elements responsible for achieving energy savings based on this maximum flow rate. In actual implementation, by enabling bandwidth approximately twice the current flow rate while ensuring uninterrupted service, the network device energy-saving method provided by the disclosed embodiments can achieve energy savings of approximately 50% for certain network protocols.

[0078] The foregoing description is merely a preferred embodiment of the present disclosure and is not intended to limit the present disclosure. Those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that various modifications and variations of the present disclosure are possible. Any modifications, equivalent substitutions, or improvements made within the principles of the present disclosure shall be included within the scope of protection of the present disclosure.

Claims

1. A network device energy saving method, comprising: Predicting and obtaining port predicted traffic of each network device port of the software defined network (SDN) based on topology data information of the SDN network; According to the actual port flow of each network device port, the maximum port flow of each network device port is obtained as the fiber break protection flow; Energy saving of network equipment is performed on the SDN network according to the port predicted traffic and the fiber break protection traffic.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein Before predicting and obtaining the port predicted traffic of each network device port of the software defined network (SDN) based on the topology data information of the SDN network, the method further includes: The SDN controller is used to obtain the topology data information of the SDN network.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein The topology data information includes at least one of the following: Node information of the SDN network; Link information of the SDN network; Link bandwidth resource information of the SDN network; Historical traffic information of network device ports at a preset minute granularity of the SDN network; Network device port information of the working path of the SDN network; Network device port information of the backup path of the SDN network.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein The method of predicting and obtaining the port predicted traffic of each network device port of the software defined network (SDN) according to the topology data information of the SDN network includes: Predicting and obtaining the receiving flow and sending flow of each of the network device ports based on the topology data information; The maximum value of the received flow and the sent flow is obtained as the port predicted flow.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein Before obtaining the maximum port flow of each network device port according to the actual port flow of each network device port as the fiber break protection flow, the method further includes: The traffic of each of the network device ports in different service combination states is collected to obtain the actual traffic of the port.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein The step of obtaining the maximum port flow of each network device port according to the actual port flow of each network device port as the fiber break protection flow includes: According to the actual traffic of the port, establishing an optimization objective function for the maximum traffic of each port of the network device in different fiber-broken states and different service combination states; According to the optimization objective function of the maximum port flow, the maximum port flow of each of the network device ports is obtained as the fiber break protection flow.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein The performing network device energy saving on the SDN network according to the port predicted traffic and the fiber break protection traffic includes: Obtaining the actual protection flow of each of the network device ports according to the port predicted flow and the fiber break protection flow; According to the actual protection traffic, the network equipment of the SDN network is regulated to save energy.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein: The obtaining, according to the port predicted flow and the fiber break protection flow, the actual protection flow of each network device port, includes: Obtaining the product of the fiber break protection flow and the preset energy-saving level as the energy-saving protection flow; The sum of the energy-saving protection flow and the port predicted flow is obtained as the actual protection flow.

9. A computer-readable storage medium having a computer program stored therein, wherein: When the computer program is executed by a processor, the method according to any one of claims 1 to 8 is implemented.

10. An electronic device comprising a memory, a processor, and a computer program stored in the memory and executable on the processor, wherein the processor implements the method according to any one of claims 1 to 8 when executing the computer program.

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