Experience With A Low Power Wireless Mobile Computing Platform

A detailed power analysis of a multi-radio mobile platform highlights the complex tradeoffs between the computation, storage, and communication subsystems. The particular mobile device, which does not include an LCD or other on-board display, can be used as a source for audio or video media files, or a source/sink for secure data transfers. A version of the device has been augmented with fine-grained power monitoring capability and used to obtain detailed measurements of power dissipation in the various subsystems. Analysis of these measurements sheds light on the power consumption characteristics of different applications, thereby providing hints to system designers about potential areas for optimization. Specifically, this work contrasts the power efficiency of the various wireless technologies supported by the system.