The convergence of fixed and mobile networks toward softwarized programmable networking platforms based on functionalities implemented for the most part by Virtual Entities (VEs) running on a general-purpose hardware infrastructure is posing new challenges to the designer of control strategies that aim at optimizing the trade-off between performance and power consumption. In such environment, attributing the power consumed by the hardware to specific VEs becomes much more difficult than in networking architectures where the same functionalities are performed by dedicated equipment (e.g., routers or L2 switches). The strong integration between the mobile and fixed network segment, already present in 5G and further strengthened in 6G is going to increase the volume of traffic and applications’ heterogeneity, along with the number of users, making network energy efficiency a full-fledged Key Performance Indicator (KPI) to be coped with.

The aim of the Workshop is to explore some of the issues that this evolution poses on finding suitable traffic and power models, as well as management and control strategies, along with Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to be used for the lifecycle management and optimization of Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) and the creation and dynamic reconfiguration of network slices, to match as closely as possible the desired balance between sustainability in terms of energy efficiency and performance.