EnergyBox
EnergyBox is a parametrised tool that enables accurate studies of transmission energy consumption at the user end, using real traffic traces as input. Currently it focuses on the most widespread wireless technologies (3G and WiFi) and emulates application data transmission energy footprint at the user device. EnergyBox performs trace based iterative packet-driven simulation. The following figure shows an overview of the EnergyBox:
For a given packet trace and input configuration parameters, EnergyBox simulates the underlying states of operation in the wireless interfaces (device states). The configuration parameters relate to the cellular operator network parameters for 3G (e.g., inactivity timers), and the adaptive power saving mode for WiFi specified at driver level.
The tool takes as input the power draw for a given mobile device in the 3G and WiFi transmission states (device power levels), and outputs an estimate of the consumed energy for the given packet trace, either synthetic or captured in a device using real applications.
The versatility and accuracy of EnergyBox was evaluated in a recent study using nine different applications with different data patterns. A comparison with real power traces indicates that EnergyBox is a valuable tool for repeatable and convenient studies. It exhibits an accuracy of 94-99% for 3G, and 93-98% for WiFi given the studied applications’ traces.
EnergyBox is currently used at Spotify for quantifying the energy consumption of their mobile application.
The code can be found in the GitHub repository
The data is available upon request via e-mail.