Green Score Routing for BGP and IGP Sustainability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP) and Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) protocols do not support green-path selection that accounts for energy efficiency and ecological factors, lacking protocol-specific methodologies to distribute and validate green networking metrics.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a method to assign green scores to nodes based on environmental impact, using a central controller to determine label switched paths (LSP) within autonomous systems, and communicating these scores through BGP and IGP protocols to optimize routing decisions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If existing IGP and BGP protocols are used for routing, then routing decisions can be made independently and quickly, but environmental sustainability and energy efficiency cannot be optimized
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the routing protocol into two distinct layers: traditional routing functionality (path selection, packet forwarding) and green networking functionality (metric collection, validation, scoring). This segmentation allows environmental considerations to be integrated without fundamentally redesigning the entire protocol stack, thereby reducing the complexity burden while achieving sustainability goals.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces intermediary components including green metric validators, score calculators, and attribute encoders that act as mediators between the traditional routing protocol and environmental sustainability requirements. These intermediaries translate ecological factors into routing-compatible metrics without requiring direct modification of core routing logic, thus managing complexity effectively.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If green networking metrics are collected and distributed, then environmental sustainability can be improved, but there is a lack of protocol-specific methodology to distribute and validate these metrics
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates universal green metric attributes that can be distributed across multiple autonomous systems and protocol types (IGP, BGP, eBGP). The metric validation and scoring mechanisms are designed to be protocol-agnostic, allowing the same green networking approach to be implemented across different routing protocols without requiring protocol-specific customizations, thereby easing implementation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transforms environmental parameters (energy consumption, carbon emissions) into standardized numeric metrics that can be encoded in existing protocol attributes. By changing the form of environmental data into protocol-compatible parameters, the system enables easy distribution and validation of green metrics across the network infrastructure.
3Use of energy by moving object
If routing decisions consider environmental factors, then energy efficiency and ecological sustainability can be optimized, but existing protocols lack attributes to encode and store these metrics
Solution Approach 1:
The patent adds a new dimension to traditional routing by incorporating environmental metrics as additional path attributes alongside conventional metrics like hop count and bandwidth. This dimensional expansion allows routing decisions to simultaneously consider both traditional performance factors and environmental sustainability without losing existing routing information or functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary encoding of green metrics into standardized attributes before they are used in routing decisions. By pre-processing environmental data into protocol-compatible formats and storing them in advance in route advertisements, the system eliminates the need for real-time metric calculation during packet forwarding, thus preventing information loss and ensuring metric availability.
Data Source
AI summary
A system and method are provided for using a green score to improve environmental sustainability for routing traffic between and or/within autonomous systems (ASs). Node-level green scores are calculated based on environmental information of the nodes (e.g., locations, router type and electrical consumption, and location-dependent environmental impact of electrical production), and AS-level green scores are based on the node-level green score from the respective ASs. For intra-AS routing, node and adjacency labels are pushed to a headend path computation element client (PCC), and the label switched path (LSP) is determined based on the node-level green scores and the node and adjacency labels. For inter-AS routing, the AS having a better AS-level green score is preferred, when the routes through the respective ASs are equal-cost multi-path (ECMP) routes. Exit nodes between ASs are selected based on the node-level green scores.