Green Satellite Networks Using Segment Routing and Software-Defined Networking

2025-04-29

AI Summary

To address high energy consumption and the difficulty of balancing energy efficiency with quality-of-service (QoS) in low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite networks under dynamic topologies, this paper proposes a green traffic engineering (TE) method based on Segment Routing over IPv6 (SRv6), specifically designed for the Telesat Lightspeed constellation within an SDN architecture. It is the first work to deeply integrate SRv6 into green TE, overcoming the energy-efficiency limitations of legacy protocols (e.g., MPLS/OSPF) in scenarios with frequent inter-satellite link handovers. Leveraging SDN’s centralized control and SRv6’s programmable path steering, the approach significantly reduces controller CPU peak and average load while sustaining a high packet delivery ratio (>99.5%). Under diverse traffic loads, it improves energy efficiency by up to 23.6%, with bounded overhead increases in memory and packet header size (<8%).

Technology Category

• Planning, Routing, and Scheduling: Plan Execution and Monitoring
• Machine Learning: Efficient ML / Green AI
• Application Domains: Internet of Things, Sensor Networks & Smart Cities

Application Category

• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Energy management for devices in mobile Web and WoT environments
• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Efficiency and scalability of Web search engines
• Responsible Web: Sustainability and climate impact of web technologies

Abstract

This paper presents a comprehensive evaluation of network performance in software defined networking (SDN)-based low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite networks, focusing on the Telesat Lightspeed constellation. We propose a green traffic engineering (TE) approach leveraging segment routing IPv6 (SRv6) to enhance energy efficiency. Through simulations, we analyze the impact of SRv6, multi-protocol label switching (MPLS), IPv4, and IPv6 with open shortest path first (OSPF) on key network performance metrics, including peak and average CPU usage, memory consumption, packet delivery rate (PDR), and packet overhead under varying traffic loads. Results show that the proposed green TE approach using SRv6 achieves notable energy efficiency, maintaining lower CPU usage and high PDR compared to traditional protocols. While SRv6 and MPLS introduce slightly higher memory usage and overhead due to their advanced configurations, these trade-offs remain manageable. Our findings highlight SRv6 with green TE as a promising solution for optimizing energy efficiency in LEO satellite networks, contributing to the development of more sustainable and efficient satellite communications.

Problem

• Evaluating network performance in SDN-based LEO satellite networks
• Proposing green TE with SRv6 for energy-efficient satellite communications
• Comparing SRv6, MPLS, IPv4/IPv6 impact on CPU, memory, and PDR

Innovation

• Green traffic engineering with SRv6
• SDN-based LEO satellite networks
• Energy efficiency via segment routing