Reducing power consumption of Wi-Fi enabled mobile devices
AssigneesToshiba America Research, Inc., Telcordia Technologies, Inc.
InventorsTao Zhang, Sunil Madhani, Provin Gurung, Eric Van Den Berg
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Abstract
A system and method for maximizing the standby time of mobile communication devices that have WiFi or other high energy-consuming network interfaces, by predicting in real time actionable silent periods (ASPs) of the interface and shutting the interface down during these ASPs. Standby times are significantly increased, resulting in longer periods of operation before battery charging is required, while keeping minimal the probabilities of missing incoming data packets when the interface is turned off.
Claims20
A method of reducing energy consumption of a mobile device that operates intermittently with extended periods of application data traffic inactivity between intermittent application data traffic operations, comprising the steps of:
- said mobile device monitoring application data traffic operation of said mobile device to detect periods of application data traffic inactivity;
- said mobile device storing a distribution of inactivity period durations;
- said mobile device predicting the duration of a detected period of application data traffic inactivity by calculating a probability of inactivity period duration based on said stored distribution by solving the following equation:
- P
- t
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-
- (
- s
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- =
- ∑
- t
- =
- t
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- +
- s
- N
-
- b
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- t
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- ∑
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- Wherein Pto(s) is the probability that a residual silent period of inactivity is given that a silent period of to has already occurred inactivity;
- and
- said mobile device turning off power to said device for a period of time substantially corresponding to said predicted duration.
A mobile apparatus, comprising:
- a network interface;
- a processor;
- and
- a power supply that turns off power to said network interface in response to a signal from said processor generated in accordance with real-time monitoring by said processor of network activity through said network interface and prediction of silent period durations during which no network activity is present in said interface based on said real-time monitoring;
- wherein said power supply turns off power to said network interface for a duration the predicted silent duration period determined by calculating a probability of inactivity period duration based on a stored distribution of inactivity period durations by solving the following equation:
- P
- t
- 0
-
- (
- s
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- =
- ∑
- t
- =
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- +
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- t
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- ∑
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- =
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- wherein Pto(s) is the probability that a residual silent of inactivity is given that a silent period of to has already occurred substantially corresponding to a predicted silent period duration.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.