<i>CoolSpots</i>

Abstract

CoolSpots enable a wireless mobile device to automatically switch between multiple radio interfaces, such as WiFi and Bluetooth, in order to increase battery lifetime. The main contribution of this work is an exploration of the policies that enable a system to switch among these interfaces, each with diverse radio characteristics and different ranges, in order to save power - supported by detailed quantitative measurements. The system and policies do not require any changes to the mobile applications themselves, and changes required to existing infrastructure are minimal. Results are reported for a suite of commonly used applications, such as file transfer, web browsing, and streaming media, across a range of operating conditions. Experimental validation of the CoolSpot system on a mobile research platform shows substantial energy savings: more than a 50% reduction in energy consumption of the wireless subsystem is possible, with an associated increase in the effective battery lifetime.