Abstract
The CONSERN project (COoperative aNd Self growing Energy awaRe Networks) develops the novel Self-Growing concept. It is part of the European Commission's FP7 research initiative focusing on the following two major research directions: i) Solutions for optimised energy and power consumption in a small scale, purpose-driven network through balancing autonomic and cooperative approaches and ii) mechanisms for the self-evolvement of the network towards a large-scale, multi-purpose network. This paper will detail mechanisms developed within CONSERN that allow an on-going integration of existing networks in an ever-growing, complex environment, applying continuous self-optimization mechanisms and guaranteeing a minimized level of power-consumption, resource usage efficiency.