Energy Management Techniques in Modern Mobile Handsets

Managing energy efficiently is paramount in modern smartphones. The diverse range of wireless interfaces and sensors, and the increasing popularity of power-hungry applications that take advantage of these resources can reduce the battery life of mobile handhelds to few hours of operation. The research community, and operating system and hardware vendors found interesting optimisations and techniques to extend the battery life of mobile phones. However, the state of the art of lithium-ion batteries clearly indicates that energy efficiency must be achieved both at the hardware and software level. In this survey, we will cover the software solutions that can be found in the research literature between 1999 and May 2011 at six different levels: energy-aware operating systems, efficient resource management, the impact of users' interaction patterns with mobile devices and applications, wireless interfaces and sensors management, and finally the benefits of integrating mobile devices with cloud computing services.