3G Energy-Efficient Packet Handling Kernel Module for Android

Abstract: The use of mobile devices is increasing due to the constant development of more advanced and appealing applications and computing features. However, these new features are very power hungry leading to short battery lifetimes. Research shows that a major reason for fast battery depletion is the excessive and inefficient use of the wireless interfaces. This thesis studies how we can attempt to increase the battery lifetime of the devices without having to sacrifice the usage of these advanced features in some applications. The thesis focuses on adapting the traffic pattern characteristics of mobile communication using a widespread wireless communication technology like 3G. Traffic pattern adaptation is performed at packet level in kernel space in Android. The data transfers are scheduled with the knowledge of the energy consumption characteristics of 3G. The performed measurements indicate that our solution can provide energy savings ranging from 7% to 59%. This work confirms that 3G conscious scheduling of network traffic reduces energy consumption, and that, both applications and energy saving libraries are potential directions to be further studied.