1. A computer-implemented method for identifying a network communication pattern comprising: analyzing a distributed computer program of the network ( 102 ); estimating virtual network communication traffic based on the analysis ( 104 ); mapping the virtual network communication traffic to a physical network link ( 106 ); identifying the network communication pattern and categorizing the physical communication network link based on an estimated communication intensity of the mapped communication traffic and the network communication pattern ( 108 ); and optimizing an energy used by the network based on the categorization ( 110 ).