The GreenNet project aims at re-thinking and redesigning different aspects of the current Internet technologies and network protocols to smartly support hardware power management. The pursued approach exploits two basic features already and largely present in today's networks and devices: the network resource virtualization and the modular architecture of nodes. These features give the opportunity of decoupling physical elements (e.g., a line-card) from their (virtual) functionalities and resources, so that the latter can be migrated towards other active physical elements. In this way, the emptied physical elements may be put in standby mode, while their logical services may continue to work elsewhere. In this respect, GreenNet aims at investigating a coordinated set of architectural solutions, protocol enhancements, control and optimization strategies, and related software developments in order to support such kind of primitives at both core and access networks. © 2012 IFIP.