This paper investigates the benefits of enabling services with differentiated energy-saving (DiffEnS) in WDM optical networks with traffic grooming capabilities. DiffEnS can reduce the operating cost (OPEX) as more customers gradually join green programs and subscribe to the energy-efficient traffic services referred to as the Green.
Based on a modular node design with grooming capabilities, two heuristic algorithms are introduced for minimizing energy consumption during provisioning of energy-aware services. Using our previously developed auxiliary graph, we report on performance of these heuristic algorithms. Our results indicate that thanks to DiffEnS moderate energy saving can be achieved, even when a small percentage of customers switch to Green services. A major trade-off is the possibility of an increased average end- to-end delay experienced by Green services.