Software-Defined Network (SDN) technology is a network management approach that facilitates a high level of programmability and centralized manageability. By leveraging the control and data plane separation, an energy-aware routing model could be easily implemented in the networks. In the present paper, we propose a two-phase SDN-based routing mechanism that aims at minimizing energy consumption while providing a certain level of QoS for the users’ flows and realizing the link load balancing. To reduce the network energy consumption, a minimum graph-based Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) approach is used in the first phase. It prunes and optimizes the network tree by turning unnecessary switches off and providing an energy-minimized sub-graph that is responsible for the network existing flows. In the second phase, an innovative weighted routing approach is developed that guarantees the QoS requirements of the incoming flows and routes them so that to balance the loads on the links. We validated our proposed approach by conducting extensive simulations on different traffic patterns and scenarios with different thresholds. The results indicate that the proposed routing method considerably minimizes the network energy consumption, especially for congested traffics with mice-type flows. It can provide effective link load balancing while satisfying the users’ QoS requirements.

软件定义网络（SDN）技术是一种网络管理方法，可促进高度的可编程性和集中式可管理性。通过利用控制和数据平面分离，可以在网络中轻松实现能量感知路由模型。在本文中，我们提出了一种基于两阶段SDN的路由机制，旨在最大限度地减少能耗，同时为用户的流提供一定级别的QoS并实现链路负载平衡。为了减少网络能耗，在第一阶段使用了最小的基于图的蚁群优化（ACO）方法。它通过关闭不必要的开关并提供负责网络现有流量的能耗最小的子图来修剪和优化网络树。在第二阶段 开发了一种创新的加权路由方法，该方法可确保传入流的QoS要求并对其进行路由，以平衡链路上的负载。我们通过对具有不同阈值的不同流量模式和场景进行广泛的仿真，验证了我们提出的方法。结果表明，所提出的路由方法极大地降低了网络能耗，尤其是对于具有鼠标类型流的拥塞流量而言。它可以提供有效的链路负载平衡，同时满足用户的QoS要求。结果表明，所提出的路由方法极大地降低了网络能耗，尤其是对于具有鼠标类型流的拥塞流量而言。它可以提供有效的链路负载平衡，同时满足用户的QoS要求。结果表明，所提出的路由方法极大地降低了网络能耗，尤其是对于具有鼠标类型流的拥塞流量而言。它可以提供有效的链路负载平衡，同时满足用户的QoS要求。