Controlling Energy Demand in Mobile Computing Systems

This lecture provides an introduction to the problem of managing the energy demand of mobile devices. Reducing energy consumption, primarily with the goal of extending the lifetime of battery-powered devices, has emerged as a fundamental challenge in mobile computing and wireless communication. The focus of this lecture is on a systems approach where software techniques exploit state-of-the-art architectural features rather than relying only upon advances in lower-power circuitry or the slow improvements in battery technology to solve the problem. Fortunately, there are many opportunities to innovate on managing energy demand at the higher levels of a mobile system. Increasingly, device components offer low power modes that enable software to directly affect the energy consumption of the system. The challenge is to design resource management policies to effectively use these capabilities.