A framework for offloading decision making to conserve battery life on mobile devices

Abstract: The increased use of mobile devices has led to the creation of complex mobile applications that require more resources than are readily available on mobile devices. As resources such as processing power and storage are found on the cloud, resources of mobile devices can be increased by using cloud-based mobile augmentation. However, some resources, specifically battery life, and bandwidth cannot be augmented. To augment mobile device resources such as battery life, offloading can be used. This research discusses offloading methods and examines the approaches used in related research. It is found that most of the energy consumed when offloading is due to network communication, as opposed to computation when executing locally. When offloading to the cloud consumes less energy than local execution, the battery life of a mobile device can be conserved. Choosing between offloading and local execution is called an offloading decision. To make offloading decisions that conserve battery life, the decision-making process is explored. A challenge identified when making offloading decisions is accurately estimating the energy consumption of tasks when offloading and when executing locally. As the energy consumption profile of each device differs according to the capabilities of the device, this aspect is explored. The research conducted in this dissertation proposes the Switch framework. The Switch framework conserves the limited battery life on mobile devices by estimating the consumption of energy of a task and choosing the least expensive option. A software-based device-specific energy consumption profile is created for this purpose. Switch is evaluated using the Switch prototype, which has been designed according to the specifications of the framework. The prototype is evaluated by comparing the estimated energy consumption against the measured energy consumption. The evaluation of the framework suggests that Switch can successfully be used to conserve battery life on mobile devices by making intelligent offloading decisions.M.Sc. (Information Technology

Raamistik mobiilsete asjade veebile

Internet on oma arengus läbi aastate jõudnud järgmisse evolutsioonietappi - asjade internetti (ingl Internet of Things, lüh IoT). IoT ei tähista ühtainsat tehnoloogiat, see võimaldab eri seadmeil - arvutid, mobiiltelefonid, autod, kodumasinad, loomad, virtuaalsensorid, jne - omavahel üle Interneti suhelda, vajamata seejuures pidevat inimesepoolset seadistamist ja juhtimist. Mobiilseadmetest nagu näiteks nutitelefon ja tahvelarvuti on saanud meie igapäevased kaaslased ning oma mitmekülgse võimekusega on nad motiveerinud teadustegevust mobiilse IoT vallas. Nutitelefonid kätkevad endas võimekaid protsessoreid ja 3G/4G tehnoloogiatel põhinevaid internetiühendusi. Kuid kui kasutada seadmeid järjepanu täisvõimekusel, tühjeneb mobiili aku kiirelt. Doktoritöö esitleb energiasäästlikku, kergekaalulist mobiilsete veebiteenuste raamistikku anduriandmete kogumiseks, kasutades kergemaid, energiasäästlikumaid suhtlustprotokolle, mis on IoT keskkonnale sobilikumad. Doktoritöö käsitleb põhjalikult energia kokkuhoidu mobiilteenuste majutamisel. Töö käigus loodud raamistikud on kontseptsiooni tõestamiseks katsetatud mitmetes juhtumiuuringutes päris seadmetega.The Internet has evolved, over the years, from just being the Internet to become the Internet of Things (IoT), the next step in its evolution. IoT is not a single technology and it enables about everything from computers, mobile phones, cars, appliances, animals, virtual sensors, etc. that connect and interact with each other over the Internet to function free from human interaction. Mobile devices like the Smartphone and tablet PC have now become essential to everyday life and with extended capabilities have motivated research related to the mobile Internet of Things. Although, the recently developed Smartphones enjoy the high performance and high speed 3G/4G mobile Internet data transmission services, such high speed performances quickly drain the battery power of the mobile device. This thesis presents an energy efficient lightweight mobile Web service provisioning framework for mobile sensing utilizing the protocols that were designed for the constrained IoT environment. Lightweight protocols provide an energy efficient way of communication. Finally, this thesis highlights the energy conservation of the mobile Web service provisioning, the developed framework, extensively. Several case studies with the use of the proposed framework were implemented on real devices and has been thoroughly tested as a proof-of-concept.https://www.ester.ee/record=b522498

Power Consumption Analysis, Measurement, Management, and Issues:A State-of-the-Art Review of Smartphone Battery and Energy Usage

The advancement and popularity of smartphones have made it an essential and all-purpose device. But lack of advancement in battery technology has held back its optimum potential. Therefore, considering its scarcity, optimal use and efficient management of energy are crucial in a smartphone. For that, a fair understanding of a smartphone's energy consumption factors is necessary for both users and device manufacturers, along with other stakeholders in the smartphone ecosystem. It is important to assess how much of the device's energy is consumed by which components and under what circumstances. This paper provides a generalized, but detailed analysis of the power consumption causes (internal and external) of a smartphone and also offers suggestive measures to minimize the consumption for each factor. The main contribution of this paper is four comprehensive literature reviews on: 1) smartphone's power consumption assessment and estimation (including power consumption analysis and modelling); 2) power consumption management for smartphones (including energy-saving methods and techniques); 3) state-of-the-art of the research and commercial developments of smartphone batteries (including alternative power sources); and 4) mitigating the hazardous issues of smartphones' batteries (with a details explanation of the issues). The research works are further subcategorized based on different research and solution approaches. A good number of recent empirical research works are considered for this comprehensive review, and each of them is succinctly analysed and discussed

Automating Computational Placement for the Internet of Things

PhD ThesisThe PATH2iot platform presents a new approach to distributed data analytics for Internet of Things applications. It automatically partitions and deploys stream-processing computations over the available infrastructure (e.g. sensors, field gateways, clouds and the networks that connect them) so as to meet non-functional requirements including network limitations and energy. To enable this, the user gives a high-level declarative description of the computation as a set of Event Processing Language queries. These are compiled, optimised, and partitioned to meet the non-functional requirements using a combination of distributed query processing techniques that optimise the computation, and cost models that enable PATH2iot to select the best deployment plan given the non-functional requirements. This thesis describes the resulting PATH2iot system, illustrated with two real-world use cases. First, a digital healthcare analytics system in which sensor battery life is the main non-functional requirement to be optimized. This shows that the tool can automatically partition and distribute the computation across a healthcare wearable, a mobile phone and the cloud - increasing the battery life of the smart watch by 453% when compared to other possible allocations. The energy cost of sending messages over a wireless network is a key component of the cost model, and we show how this can be modelled. Furthermore, the uncertainty of the model is addressed with two alternative approaches: one frequentist and one Bayesian The second use case is one in which an acoustic data analytics for transport monitoring is automatically distributed so as enable it to run over a low-bandwidth LORA network connecting the sensor to the cloud. Overall, the paper shows how the PATH2iot system can automatically bring the benefits of edge computing to the increasing set of IoT applications that perform distributed data analytics

On Programmable Interactions: Principles, Concepts and Challenges of Co-Located and Social Interplay

Computing machines and humans interacting has long followed similar principles – A human gives an input command to a machine, which the machine then executes, gives an output, and waits for the next human input. Thus the interactions are user-initiated, requiring constant active participation, and much attention. Despite this, the number of such interactions has kept increasing since computing has now pervaded all areas of human life. Take mobile devices as an example: they are now considered as magic remote controllers that enable interaction with the whole world. Hence, people are now glued to their mobiles, which makes them more detached from their surroundings and other people nearby. Consequently, there is no need nor desire to socialize with other people in close proximity. Presently, the physical world and the cyber world are melting into each other, and new cyber-physical devices are rapidly emerging. This means that an ever-increasing number of computers are awaiting user input.This wide array of computing devices and heterogeneous networking capabilities have great potential for improving the ways human interactions with computing can work. The problem is that the current ways of implementing software are not well-suited for implementing interactions where multiple co-located people and devices participate. The tools mainly support implementing apps where a sole user interacts with the device, and possibly, remotely with another person. Vendor-neutrality also causes many challenges as some manufacturers only focus on improving interoperability within ecosystems.This thesis approaches computing with a novel concept of programmable interactions. The idea is to consider the interactions as first class citizens in software development. Instead of focusing on how a human interacts with a machine, the focus is on how the machines in the same space can share resources and jointly interact with each other, serving the humans – the programmable interactions are based on principles that put humans into a central role in the interactions. For developing such interactions, the thesis presents an Action-Oriented Programming model and its runtime environment. Human and social aspects are considered with a concept of companion devices. These companions carry personal profiles about their owners, and represent them for other devices that are nearby. The devices socialize and interact with each other as well as with their owners proactively, meaning that they are also allowed to initiate interactions.The approaches and concepts that are presented form the basis for developing software where interactions play a key role. These programmable interactions are based on a set of human-centric principles, and the task of enabling them is highly demanding. Therefore, enabling programmable interactions should rather be considered as a continuous process that improves over time. The most crucial challenges have been identified in this thesis together with a view on how the current technology can be used to respond to them