EXIGENCE’s technological components focus on energy consumption (EC) and carbon footprint metrics, orchestration methods, as well as prototype development. A technology assessment ensures that the project’s architecture and integration efforts align with its overarching goal: enabling energy-aware ICT services across diverse domains. It also aims at validating the technological readiness of components and prototypes. More detailed findings are presented in deliverable D4.2 Preliminary Technology Assessment (available soon).
Assessment Methodology
Two complementary methods were used to evaluate the components, as described in deliverable D4.1 Assessment Plan:
- Method I (Interface Check): Assesses soundness, completeness, and compatibility of interfaces.
- Method II (Requirements Check): Validates alignment with project requirements.
Previous blog posts have already introduced the developments of those components in WP2 for the development of energy metrics and WP3 on the mechanisms for energy use reduction.
Results
The key findings by EXIGENCE component are summarised below:
1. Energy Consumption and CO₂e Metrics
To get a more detailed picture of energy use, we defined 11 energy consumption metrics and 4 carbon intensity metrics. These metrics allow us to decompose system-level energy use by looking at specific factors like hardware and software layers, user sessions, and production mix.
- Soundness & Completeness: Metrics are mathematically robust and cover all relevant domains.
- Compatibility: Universally applicable across service types.
- Challenge: Translating EC to CO₂e requires standardised APIs from electricity providers, which are currently lacking.
2. Energy Efficiency Metrics
To provide a more complete picture, the metrics incorporate factors like idle-to-load energy ratios and the energy overhead created by load changes. We also included the EU’s 2023/1791 metric to ensure we accounted for system performance.
- Soundness: Reflects industry standards.
- Completeness & Compatibility: Sufficient for determining optimal efficiency boundaries.
3. Measurement Methods, Tools, and Prototypes
To enable the capture and aggregation of metrics from hardware and software, we have integrated a mix of industry standard tools, such as power meters, Baseboard Management Controllers (BMCs), and Running Average Power Limit (RAPL) – into the core EXIGENCE architecture. This setup provides the necessary support for accurate service-level attribution.
- Soundness: Based on industry standards.
- Completeness: Covers most service chains, except mobile devices.
- Compatibility: High, due to reliance on standard tools.
4. Data Collection, Storage, and Exchange
While this work has experienced some delays, it is still focused on a key objective: producing an ontology for energy data. This ontology is designed to be fully compatible with current database and transmission technologies.
5. Data Exchange Interfaces
The development of this component is pending and will begin once the preceding component, as described above, is completed.
6. Green Service Orchestrator
The chosen orchestration engines are Kubernetes (K8s) and MANO. They were selected for their ability to support the integration of carbon-aware scheduling, a crucial feature for our project.
- Soundness: Compatible with EXIGENCE’s architecture.
- Completeness & Compatibility: Widely adopted, minimising switching costs.
7. Runtime Service Coordination Methods
This component incorporates several key models: Soft-Actor-Critic, FedZero for federated learning, and FUMES for network functions..
- Soundness: Valid within orchestration architecture.
- Completeness: Generalisability to other domains remains uncertain.
- Compatibility: Designed for integration with K8s.
8. User Incentivisation Component
The assessment of this component is still pending. Its purpose is to evaluate the effectiveness of the runtime coordination and resource control protocols.
9. Common Interfaces and Protocols
This component has been included into the Green Service Orchestrator because K8s and MANO already expose the fine-grained resource selection interfaces needed for this function.
Prototype for Use Phase Energy Consumption
One of the project’s objectives is to develop a TRL4 prototype capable of reliably assessing Energy Consumption (EC) / CO₂e of the use phase of an ICT service execution or provisioning over all involved domains, potentially of different tenants. The goal of the prototype developed is to demonstrate the collection and transmission of live energy consumption measurements for any service instance within a future 6G system. The service can be based on a single server/node, or it can be distributed, involving several nodes and communications among them. This prototype demonstrates the feasibility of exposing energy consumption information to end users. By integrating the PowerAPI ecosystem with orchestration mechanisms, user-specific processes and workloads can be identified, tagged and their energy consumption tracked. The end-user device is then responsible for querying the relevant PowerAPI database to retrieve accurate energy usage data.
Key features include:
- PowerAPI Integration:
A modular, open-source framework for real-time energy monitoring. It collects data from hardware sensors and external tools, enabling fine-grained attribution of energy use to specific service components.
- Experiment Setup:
Services such as video streaming and distributed AI computation were deployed. Energy probes monitored usage patterns, and data was aggregated by service and user type.
- Client-Side Tools:
Integrated with VLC media player to expose energy data to end users. Traffic classification mechanisms ensured accurate mapping of service requests to energy consumption.
Validation at IETF #123 Hackathon
To validate the prototype and energy consumption collection methodology, EXIGENCE project was an active participant in the IETF #123 Hackathon challenge, held in Madrid, Spain, on 19-20 July 2025. The Hackathon provided a real-world testing ground for EXIGENCE’s prototype. The project team collaborated with representatives from Cisco and Telefonica under the IETF Working Group GREEN to validate the system’s energy consumption measurement capabilities.
Key Activities and Achievements:
- Transport Network Integration: The prototype was extended to include EC measurements from transport nodes, which had previously been excluded. This was achieved by integrating lab equipment at Telefonica’s premises.
- Smart PDU Data Retrieval: Using YANG/RESTCONF interfaces, the team accessed EC readings from smart Power Distribution Units (PDUs) connected to router power supplies. Although these PDUs only provided total router EC, the team developed a model to estimate EC based on traffic volume.
- Model Development: A Cisco router was used to measure EC under varying traffic patterns. The team derived a model that maps throughput to EC, excluding idle power. This allowed for more accurate attribution of energy use to specific traffic flows.
- Visualisation and User Display: The EC measurements – including transport overheads – were integrated into the EXIGENCE prototype and displayed to both users and service providers. This demonstrated the feasibility of end-to-end EC tracking across service domains.
- Collaboration and Impact: The hackathon showcased EXIGENCE’s ability to work across organisational boundaries and integrate with industry-standard equipment and protocols. The validation effort strengthened the credibility of the project’s approach and laid the groundwork for future standardisation efforts.
Conclusion
The preliminary technological assessment confirms that most EXIGENCE components are sound, complete, and compatible with the project goals. Key achievements include:
- Definition and validation of energy and carbon metrics.
- Integration of standard tools for energy measurement.
- Development of a TRL 4 prototype demonstrating real-time EC monitoring.
- Successful validation at an international hackathon.
Pending components – such as data exchange interfaces and incentivisation mechanisms – are on track for completion in the next phase.
Read EXIGENCE D2.1 – Metrics for Energy Consumption and Efficiency Metering: HERE
Authors
TNO
Ljupco Jorguseski received a Dipl. Ing. degree in electrical engineering from the University Cyril and Methodius, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia in 1996, and a Ph.D. degree in 2008 from the Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark. From 1997 to1999 he worked as applied researcher at TU Delft, The Netherlands on the ETSI WCDMA proposal for 3G, followed by research position on wireless 3G and 4G systems at KPN Research, The Netherlands till 2003. Since 2003 he is a senior consultant on wireless access at TNO, the Dutch national institute for applied research, focusing on radio planning and (self-)optimisation of wireless networks. From 2008 he is involved as RAN and SA groups delegate in 3GPP and from 2021 he also follows O-RAN Alliance standardization activities. He has authored and co-authored over 30 publications in conferences, journals, book chapters and patent applications.
TNO
Sarah Lim Choi Keung is a project manager at TNO, focusing on ICT research projects in the areas of next-generation networking technologies, including 5G/6G, cloud-based, radio and immersive networking. Her interests extend to technology for verticals, sustainability and technology policy. With a background in Computer Science, Sarah has research, teaching and project management experience in health informatics while working at the University of Birmingham and University of Warwick in the UK.