Reducing Energy Waste Due to Idle Network Devices

The original NCP concept was introduced in the literature with two objectives: 1) impersonate basic network presence (i.e., ARP, PING) and maintain reachability (i.e., WoC) and 2) impersonate Internet-based applications and their associated TCP connections. The first objective faces no serious issues and is practically realizable. The second objective is very challenging and prohibits the development of a full-fledged NCP prototype (i.e., proxying proprietary closed-source applications). To overcome the limitations of the NCP concept, we proposed a system that uses a very lightweight gateway proxy that impersonates ARP and ping protocols on behalf of sleeping devices and wakes them up when necessary (e.g., remote access). Instead of proxying applications and TCP sessions, this system ensures that applications run on a single-user device at any given time. These applications will run on a smartphone, tablet, laptop, or desktop PC based on user-specified configurations and devices priorities. The proposed system is nearly realizable, and the achievable energy savings are equivalent or higher than the original NCP concept. Furthermore, it is also beneficial for mobile devices by improving their battery life due to not running applications 24/7.