Energy-aware traffic forwarding and loop avoidance

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12273239-B2
Application number	US-202318381426-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 18, 2023
Priority date	Mar 31, 2023
Publication date	Apr 8, 2025
Grant date	Apr 8, 2025

Abstract

Energy-aware configurations can be utilized to operate a network based on sustainability-related metrics. In many embodiments, a suitable device includes a processor, a memory commutatively coupled to the processor, a plurality of elements, a communication port, and an energy-aware topology logic configured to collect topology data from one or more network devices, wherein each of the one or more network devices include a plurality of elements. The energy-aware topology logic can receive power source data and power usage data related to plurality of elements and generate an element energy coefficient (EEC) for a plurality of elements. Subsequently, the energy-aware topology logic can also generate an energy-aware configuration for at least one of the one or more network devices, and then pass the generated energy-aware configuration to the at least one network device, wherein the energy-aware configuration is configured to steer traffic based on at least one sustainability-related metric.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A device comprising:
a processor;
a memory commutatively coupled to the processor;
a plurality of elements;
a communication port coupled with one or more neighboring devices; and
wherein an energy-aware topology logic, when executed by the processor, directs the device to:
collect topology data from one or more network devices, wherein each of the one or more network devices include a plurality of elements;
receive power source data and power usage data related to one or more of the plurality of elements;
generate an element energy coefficient (EEC) for the one or more of the plurality of elements;
generate an energy-aware configuration for at least one of the one or more network devices; and
pass the generated energy-aware configuration to the at least one network device, wherein the energy-aware configuration is configured to steer traffic based on at least one sustainability-related metric.

2. The device of claim 1 , wherein the topology data is collected from L2 and L3 topologies.

3. The device of claim 2 , wherein the energy-aware configuration is configured to avoid looping within the L2 and L3 topologies.

4. The device of claim 1 , wherein the energy-aware topology data is further configured to receive sustainability-related capabilities of one or more network devices.

5. The device of claim 1 wherein the EEC is generated at least in part on the received power source data and power usage data.

6. The device of claim 1 wherein the EEC is generated for a single network device.

7. The device of claim 1 wherein the EEC is generated for a plurality of network devices.

8. The device of claim 7 , wherein the plurality of network devices includes a link aggregation group.

9. The device of claim 1 , wherein the energy-aware topology is further configured to receive link aggregation data.

10. The device of claim 9 , wherein the link aggregation data is received via a link aggregation control protocol.

11. The device of claim 1 , wherein the energy-aware topology is further configured to receive loop avoidance data.

12. The device of claim 11 , wherein the loop avoidance data is received via a spanning tree protocol.

13. The device of claim 1 , wherein the energy-aware topology is further configured to receive load balancing data.

14. The device of claim 1 , wherein the energy-aware topology is further configured to receive service level objective data.

15. The device of claim 1 , wherein the energy-aware configuration is passed to an orchestrator logic that is configured to push the energy-aware configuration across one or more layers of the network to the at least one network device.

16. A device comprising:
a processor;
a memory commutatively coupled to the processor;
a plurality of elements;
a communication port coupled with one or more neighboring devices; and
wherein an energy-aware topology logic, when executed by the processor, directs the device to:
collect topology data from one or more network devices, wherein each of the one or more network devices include a plurality of elements;
receive sustainability-related capabilities of one or more network devices;
generate a feature energy coefficient (FEC) for one or more of the plurality of elements;
generate an energy-aware configuration for at least one of the one or more plurality of elements, wherein the energy-aware configuration is configured to modify at least one sustainability-related capability within the at least one network device; and
pass the generated energy-aware configuration to the at least one network device, wherein the network device modifies the at least one sustainability-related capability.

17. The device of claim 16 wherein the energy-aware topology data is further configured to receive energy consumption data.

18. The device of claim 17 wherein the energy consumption data comprises data associated with a plurality of capability combinations.

19. The device of claim 16 , wherein the sustainability-related capability modification is associated with an operation of one or more elements within a plurality of network devices.

20. A network device element comprising:
an energy-aware topology logic, when executed by a processor, directs the network device to:
collect topology data from one or more network devices, wherein each of the one or more network devices include a plurality of elements;
receive element energy coefficient data and feature energy coefficient data associated with the one or more network devices;
receive current traffic data;
receive power source data;
receive sustainability-related capabilities of one or more network devices; and

generate an energy-aware configuration for at least one of the one or more network devices, wherein the energy-aware configuration includes an energy-aware path selection.

Assignees

• Cisco Tech Inc

Inventors

• Pignataro Carlos
• Voit Eric A
• Nainar Nagendra Kumar
• Yannuzzi Marcelo

Classifications

• H04W40/08

  based on transmission power · CPC title

• H04W40/04

  based on wireless node resources · CPC title

• H04L45/245

  Link aggregation, e.g. trunking · CPC title

• H04L45/18

  Loop-free operations · CPC title

• H04L45/123

  Evaluation of link metrics (techniques for monitoring network metrics H04L43/08) · CPC title