Measurements of Energy Consumption in Mobile Applications with respect to QoE

Proposal for Master Thesis in Electrical Engineering

Base information
Student 1
Name: Kasireddy Sai Suren Kumar
Email: saka10@student.bth.se
P. Nr.: 8807149599

Student 2
Name: Vishnuvardhan reddy Bojja
Email: vvre08@student.bth.se
P. Nr.: 8007126272

Title (preliminary):

Measurements of Energy Consumption in Mobile Applications with respect to QoE

Link to project home page (if any): NA

Academic Advisor: Markus Fiedler

Faculty Reviewer:

Start- and end-date: 2011-02-01 to 2011-06-15

Thesis type (research / industrial, theoretical / empirical):

Research & Empirical

Student 1 suitability
Electrical engineering course credits completed at BTH (total): 55.5 ECTS credit points

Telecommunication systems engineering courses completed at BTH relevant for thesis

work:
 Mobile services
 Software development for telecommunication systems
 Telecommunication systems
 Wireless Personal Area Networks
 Network Management
 Research Methodology
 Simulation
 Random process

Page 1
 Measurements of Energy Consumption in Mobile Applications with respect to QoE

Student 2 suitability
Electrical engineering course credits completed at BTH (total): 127.5 ECTS credit points

Telecommunication Systems engineering courses completed at BTH relevant for thesis

work:
 Software development for telecommunication systems
 Telecommunication systems
 Research Methodology
 Mobile communications
 Simulation
 Wireless Personal Area Networks
 Random process

Background

The mobile or smart phone is ushering in the real age of ubiquitous computing, also provides
many valuable services and we shouldn’t undervalue its important features which include
voice, video, Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) along with normal text mode
communication using latest wireless technologies such as Worldwide Interoperability for
Microwave Access (WiMAX), Wireless Fidelity (WiFi), and Wireless Local Area Network
(WLAN) etc. Along with the availability of these promising services and applications, they are
also becoming more and more energy hungry reducing operational time for the user [1].

WiFi based phones are becoming increasingly popular due to the ubiquitous presence of
wireless LANs. Power consumption is the vital issue in selection of a mobile phone [2]. Since
all of these devices use mostly rechargeable batteries, achieving low power consumption for
wireless devices has become a key design issue [7].

The appealing services and features unfortunately drain lot of energy stored in a capacity
limited battery of a mobile phone. It is a common problem among phone manufacturers in
finding a way to extend battery life of their devices and allow users to use mobile services for
a longer time [1].

In order to provide guidelines for design, provisioning and operations of mobile services,
applications such as voice, video or any other multimedia applications need to be identified
and quantified to obtain a compromise between QoE and energy consumption.

Measurements conducted on a Nokia N95 to show the energy consumption for the most widely
used services, namely SMS, voice and data using both Global System for Mobile
communications (GSM) and Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) are
presented in [1].

In [3] limitations of black box based energy measurement techniques have been addressed
and also an accurate method for measuring energy consumption without additional hardware
had been proposed.

Page 2
 Measurements of Energy Consumption in Mobile Applications with respect to QoE

An investigation of consumer attitude towards energy consumption of mobile phones and

mobile services with a questionnaire study is done in [5] depicts that customers are eager to
know about the energy consumption of mobile applications and services.

A quantitative study of YouTube’s energy consumption in mobile devices based on the

measurements carried out on Nokia S60 mobile phones and further investigation of the
energy characteristics based on network access technology Wideband Code Division Multiple
Access (WCDMA) and WLAN, download technology and storage media used was carried out
in [6].

The research work carried out in [ 3, 4, 5, 7, 8] has no significant contribution towards 3G &
4G technology supporting mobiles and the promising services like broadband data services
with video and multimedia, superior voice quality. Even though in [1] efforts have been made
towards increasing the battery life of a mobile, but a methodology which can reliably
measure energy has not been addressed.

Significant contribution will be made to establish an experimental hardware setup which can
provide reliable energy measurements for any type of mobile phone. We will also analyze how
the energy consumption of mobile battery is going to vary with the real time and non-real
time traffic under different wireless networks. We will finally relate the energy consumption to
QoE and provide a set of conclusions and recommendations based on the results.

Aims and objectives

The aim of this research is to establish a hardware experimental setup which can provide
reliable measurements of energy consumption using various applications under different
wireless networks in a mobile phone.

 To perform literature review in order to identify energy meter, QoE and energy
consumption in mobile terminals.
 To identify hardware instrument that measures the energy consumed by a mobile and
provide reliability in measurements.
 If such an instrument doesn’t exist, we have to establish an experimental setup with
available hardware and ensure that the measurements are reliable.
 To efficiently use the hardware setup to measure the amount of energy consumed by
3G mobiles over different networks (WiFi, WiMAX…) while accessing various
applications and services.
 To relate the energy consumption and QoE and analyze how QoE is varying with
energy consumption.
 To analyze the level of compromise that can be done in QoE and energy consumption.
 To make few recommendations in order to provide guidelines for design, provisioning
and operations of services in a mobile phone.

Page 3
 Measurements of Energy Consumption in Mobile Applications with respect to QoE

Research questions

1. Is there any methodology to measure the power consumption of a battery in real

time environment? Is it possible to do any experimental evaluation of mobile phone
power consumption and QoE issues?

2. To which extent the energy consumption depends on the type of OS (Operating

System) used in the mobile phone?

3. How do power measurements of a mobile battery using software deviate from

hardware based measurements?

4. How does a compromise between battery lifetime, energy consumption and QoE of
a mobile phone can be achieved?

5. How can we relate QoE and energy consumption in a mobile device?

Expected outcomes

1) The expected test bed evaluates the energy consumption of various applications at
different terminals under different operating systems in a wireless network.
2) Tabular data that includes energy consumption when different applications are on
different terminals eventually with different operating systems and networks.
3) The graph which can compare the results of power meter application with energy meter
readings at equal intervals of time.
4) Results are obtained in terms of user perceptions that may be presented in graphs as well
as tables containing Mean Opinion Scores (MOS).
5) Results will also contain critical parameters that are taken into consideration while
relating QoE and energy consumption.

Research Methodology

1) In the initial phase of the research, we will carry out a literature survey related to
Mobile Operating systems, energy consumption, QoE constraints, and in particular
regarding parameters affecting them.
2) A study about the various energy meters and finding an appropriate one that suits our
research.
3) In the second phase we will carry out an analysis of different 3G mobiles and the basic
services and applications in which users are mostly interested.
4) As a part of this, we indulge in studying the concepts of QoE, energy consumption and
battery life time in Mobile phones and parameters that affect them.
5) Once we are done with the literature review, ascertaining the appropriate energy meter
and list of few mobiles and applications we will move to actual experimental stage.
6) In the next stage we will be experimenting with different mobiles (most commonly
used 3G mobiles depending on availability) and applications (includes real time and
non real time traffic) under different wireless networks (Wi-Fi, WiMAX...) and
measure the amount of energy being consumed for the selected applications.

Page 4
 Measurements of Energy Consumption in Mobile Applications with respect to QoE

7) We will then proceed to a user related survey which can assist in QoE analysis.
8) The results obtained from experiments are going to be quantitatively analyzed to
obtain a relation between QoE and energy consumption.
9) Finally we will provide a set of conclusions and make few recommendations based on
the results of our analysis.

Risks

Risk Possible Solution Probability of risk

Lack of equipment Before we begin our research Moderate
we will ensure that necessary
equipment is available and
then proceed. Even then
some problems may arise
with lack of equipment we
will approach supervisor for
necessary help.
Inadequate survey It happens because of lack of Moderate
information users, time and efficient
questionnaire. Risk regarding
questionnaire can be
eliminated by discussing with
supervisor and other risks can
also be eliminated by
utilizing all the resources
efficiently and involving as
many people as we can.
Lack of time Regular meetings with our Low
supervisor and good co-
operation from the partner
and dedication towards the
research to meet the
deadlines will help us
eliminating this risk.

Time plan
Scheduled Milestones and Meetings:

 20110119: Start writing the proposal

 20110124: First draft of proposal to supervisor
 20110129: Final draft of proposal to supervisor
 20110228: End of literature review
 20110315: End of survey for Listing out mobiles and applications
 20110410: End of experiments on various mobiles
 20110420: End of Survey as well as Quantitative analysis

Page 5
 Measurements of Energy Consumption in Mobile Applications with respect to QoE

 20110505: Supervisor tells examiner we are ok for presentation

 20110522: Updated final draft sent to opponents
 20110601: Thesis Presentation
 20110615: Final thesis updated, approved and sent to examiner

References

[1] G. P. Perrucci, F. H. P. Fitzek, G. Sasso, W. Kellerer, J. Widmer, "On the impact of 2G

and 3G network usage for mobile phones' battery life," in Wireless Conference, 2009, pp.
255-259.

[2] A. Gupta, P. Mohapatra, "Energy Consumption and Conservation in WiFi Based Phones:
A Measurement-Based Study," in 4th Annual IEEE Communications Society Conference on
Sensor, Mesh and Ad Hoc Communications and Networks, 2007, pp. 122-131.

[3] Dae-cheol You, Young-Si Hwang, Young-Ho Ahn, Ki-Seok Chung, "Energy consumption
prediction technique for embedded mobile device by using battery discharging pattern," in
2nd IEEE International Conference on Network Infrastructure and Digital Content, 2010, pp.
907-910.

[4] An He, S. Srikanteswara, K. K. Bae, J. H. Reed, W. H. Tranter, "Energy consumption

minimization for mobile and wireless devices - a cognitive approach," in Consumer
Electronics, IEEE Transactions on, vol. 56, no. 3, pp. 1814-1821, Aug, 2010.

[5] M. V. J. Heikkinen, J. K. Nurminen, "Consumer Attitudes Towards Energy Consumption

of Mobile Phones and Services," in Vehicular Technology Conference Fall (VTC 2010-Fall),
2010 IEEE 72nd, 2010, pp. 1-5.

[6] Yu Xiao, R. S. Kalyanaraman, A. Yla-Jaaski, "Energy Consumption of Mobile YouTube:

Quantitative Measurement and Analysis," in Second International Conference on Next
Generation Mobile Applications, Services and Technologies, 2008, pp. 61-69.

[7] Hyun-Ho Choi, Jung-Ryun Lee, Dong-Ho Cho, "On the use of a power-saving mode for
mobile VoIP devices and its performance evaluation," IEEE Transactions on Consumer
Electronics, vol. 55, no. 3, pp. 1537-1545, August, 2009.

[8] M. R. Jongerden, B. R. Haverkort, "Which battery model to use?," in Software, IET, vol.
3, no. 6, pp. 445-457, December, 2009.

[9] http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread35959.html, [last accessed on 2011-01-22].

Page 6