Carbon-Intelligent Global Routing in Path-Aware Networks

TL;DR

This paper introduces CIRo, a system leveraging path-aware network architecture to forecast and disseminate carbon intensity data, enabling more environmentally friendly Internet routing with significant reductions in carbon footprint.

Contribution

The paper presents CIRo, a novel system for predicting and sharing carbon intensity of inter-domain paths, improving carbon-aware routing in path-aware networks.

Findings

CIRo can reduce the carbon intensity of communications by at least 47% for half of domain pairs.

CIRo can decrease the overall carbon footprint of Internet usage by at least 50% for 87% of end domains.

The system demonstrates significant potential for environmentally sustainable Internet routing.

Abstract

The growing energy consumption of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has raised concerns about its environmental impact. However, the carbon efficiency of data transmission over the Internet has so far received little attention. This carbon efficiency can be enhanced effectively by sending traffic over carbon-efficient inter-domain paths. However, challenges in estimating and disseminating carbon intensity of inter-domain paths have prevented carbon-aware path selection from becoming a reality. In this paper, we take advantage of path-aware network architectures to overcome these challenges. In particular, we design CIRo, a system for forecasting the carbon intensity of inter-domain paths and disseminating them across the Internet. We implement a proof of concept for CIRo on the codebase of the SCION path-aware Internet architecture and test it on the SCIONLab global research testbed. Further, we demonstrate the potential of CIRo for reducing the carbon footprint of endpoints and end domains through large-scale simulations. We show that CIRo can reduce the carbon intensity of communications by at least 47% for half of the domain pairs and the carbon footprint of Internet usage by at least 50% for 87% of end domains.