GreenNet 2026
5th International Workshop on
Green and Sustainable Networking
In conjunction with
12th IEEE International Conference on Network Softwarization (NetSoft 2026)
3 July 2026 // Berlin, Germany
In conjunction with
12th IEEE International Conference on Network Softwarization (NetSoft 2026)
3 July 2026 // Berlin, Germany
Fifth International Workshop on Green and Sustainable Networking (GreenNet 2026)
Energy efficiency and sustainability are becoming increasingly important in information and communication technology. A key challenge is balancing availability, resilience, programmability, and energy efficiency in networks and services, which requires reliable monitoring, metrics, and benchmarking based on well-defined KPIs. The GreenNet Workshop focuses on emerging challenges and concepts for sustainable networked services, including sustainability across all network layers in light of growing AI/ML use, new access technologies, edge computing, and increasing demand for distributed services, intelligence, computation and data transport.
Authors are invited to submit original contributions of up to 7 pages in IEEE 2-column format (written in English). Only original papers not published or submitted for publication elsewhere will be considered for the workshop.
See https://netsoft2026.ieee-netsoft.org/ which includes author and submission guidelines.
Workshop paper submission: March 30, 2026
Workshop paper notification of acceptance: April 27, 2026
Camera-ready submission: May 4, 2026
Workshop date: Friday, July 3, 2026
1. Models, Simulations, Measurements of Energy Efficient and Sustainable Solutions
Modeling, simulation, measurement for performance, power, and sustainability assessment
Holistic views across the full stack (from access to data center)
Digital twins for improving energy consumption and efficiency
Reliable, resilient, and sustainable networks
2. Network and Device Management
Network and device management and control mechanisms
APIs for power management interfaces
Scheduling, timing, and orchestration of sleep modes in different network parts
Decentralized energy management
Power-aware network slicing and orchestration
Standardization efforts (metrics, KPIs, lifecycle, carbon considerations)
3. Energy Efficiency and Sustainability Optimization
Optimization of energy, performance, resilience, and sustainability
Architectural solutions toward sustainable networks
Software-driven energy reduction, self-x, zero-touch, network automatization
Role of edge in sustainable infrastructure: optimized placement of resources
Energy efficiency of web3 decentralized network
4. Sustainable Access and Communication Technologies
Energy efficiency in 5G, 6G, and beyond
Sustainability oriented wireless and wired access network improvements
Energy-efficient RANs and O-RAN, including effects of non-terrestrial networks
Multi-technology access and multipath support (ATSS)
Heterogeneous cell coverage (macro, micro, pico, femto)
Energy-saving Internet protocols
Delay-tolerant networking
Distributed processing (cloud, edge, fog, serverless); efficiency in data centers
Sustainable sensor and industrial automation networks
Use of renewable energy/energy harvesting in network infrastructure and devices
Carbon footprint reduction through lifecycle assessment of devices
Lightweight IoT protocols and green sensing
5. AI/ML for Energy Efficiency
AI/ML for network management and optimization of energy consumption
AI/ML in slicing, fog/cloud/MEC, virtualization, automation, and adaptation
Energy consumption reduction of AI/ML and LLM training, inference, and data center operations
Evaluation of energy requirements of AI/ML algorithms
AI-RAN Orchestration for performance and energy trade-offs
GreenNet 2022: 1st International Workshop on Network Energy Efficiency in the Softwarization Era (GreenNet 2022), co-located with the IEEE International Conference on Network Softwarization (NetSoft 2022) Milan, 27 June - 1 July 2022
GreenNet 2023: 2nd International Workshop on Green and Sustainable Networking, co-located with the IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC 2023), Rome, Italy, 28 May - 1 June 2023
GreenNet 2024: 3rd International Workshop on Green and Sustainable Networking, co-located with the IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC 2024), Denver, CO, USA, 9 - 13 June 2024
GreenNet 2025: 4th International Workshop on Green and Sustainable Networking, co-located with the IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC 2025), Montreal, Canada, 8 - 12 June 2025
Franco Davoli, University of Genoa and CNIT S2N National Lab, Italy (franco.davoli@unige.it)
Hesham ElBakoury, Independent Consultant, Santa Clara, CA, USA (helbakoury@gmail.com)
Tobias Hoßfeld, University of Würzburg, Germany (tobias.hossfeld@uni-wuerzburg.de)
Frank Loh, University of Würzburg, Germany (frank.loh@uni-wuerzburg.de)
Chiara Lombardo, University of Genoa and CNIT S2N National Lab, Italy (chiara.lombardo@unige.it)
Timothy O'Farrell, University of Sheffield, UK (t.ofarrell@sheffield.ac.uk)
Andrea Pimpinella, University of Bergamo, Italy (andrea.pimpinella@unibg.it)