Catching the download train: Energy-efficient file downloading on smartphones

The most energy-consuming applications in battery life-constrained smartphones are the ones that comprise data transmission, especially via the 3G interface. Scheduling download activities on smartphones is especially necessary, if there are multiple asynchronous downloads scattered over a long duration. The latter scenario highly increases the energy consumption of smartphones. In this paper, we investigate energy consumption with the focus on file downloading while scheduling multiple file downloads in two scenarios: serialized and parallel. We repeat the experiments on a single smartphone via its 3G and also via WiFi tethering via another smartphone. We assess the performance of the two scenarios via measurement of power consumption and corresponding download duration in a realistic environment.