SummaryIn this paper, we focus on energy efficient virtual network embedding in federated (multidomain) software‐defined networks (SDNs). We first formulate an optimization problem as an integer linear program (ILP) that minimizes the energy consumption of the network links, while at the same time adhering to the bandwidth and CPU requirements of the virtual network requests. We then propose a polynomial‐time heuristic algorithm, which consists of three stages. In the first stage, the top SDN controller decides on whether to partition the virtual network request into smaller subrequests and give subrequests to multiple domains or give the enitre virtual network request to a single domain, while in the second stage, each SDN controller implements virtual network embedding in its own domain. Finally, in the third stage, the algorithm performs interdomain routing if partitioning decision had been made in the first stage. Our simulation results demonstrate that our proposed algorithm yields close performance to the solutions obtained by using the optimization software CPLEX that implements our ILP.