  5G network nodes, fronthaul and backhaul alike, will have both forwarding and
computational capabilities. This makes energy-efficient network management more
challenging, as decisions such as activating or deactivating a node impact on
both the ability of the network to route traffic and the amount of processing
it can perform. To this end, we formulate an optimization problem accounting
for the main features of 5G nodes and the traffic they serve, allowing joint
decisions about (i) the nodes to activate, (ii) the network functions they run,
and (iii) the traffic routing. Our optimization module is integrated within the
management and orchestration framework of 5G, thus enabling swift and
high-quality decisions. We test our scheme with both a real-world testbed based
on OpenStack and OpenDaylight, and a large-scale emulated network whose
topology and traffic come from a real-world mobile operator, finding it to
consistently outperform state-of-the art alternatives and closely match the
optimum.
