Measuring energy consumption characteristics in mobile data communication

Abstract: This report looks at the modern cellular wireless network environment and the factors of energy consumption therein. The consumption of connectivity re- lated hardware is gradually becoming a larger part of the power consumption of virtually any mobile device. This report studies measurements of a mobile broadband module energy usage due to data transfer. It is found that switch- ing between technologies is still beneficial and savings are very feasible when using technologies with different traits if done correctly. Further the possibility of energy savings within a single high-bandwidth technology (3G) are assessed considering variations on response time and throughput. This is relevant as the need to handle highly dynamic loads becomes more and more important in the modern connectivity landscape. By gauging the savings available from schedul- ing link accesses and switching technology this is put in context by sampling a few common services namely Skype, Spotify and normal web browsing for their energy footprints. We will also look briefly at the background traffic generated by two common operating systems, Windows 7 and Ubuntu GNU/Linux.