Energy-aware resource sharing with mobile devices

Ad hoc sharing of resources by offering remote services through an appropriate infrastructure enables new applications for mobile devices. However, the willingness of device owners to contribute resources to such applications remains low as long as they cannot control the amount of energy spent in sharing. In this paper, we present a framework for energy-aware resource sharing among mobile devices of various kinds that comprises (1) energy-aware strategies for selecting remote service providers and (2) a generic energy estimator for forecasting and accounting the energy consumption of a remote service call. To illustrate the benefit of (1), we show by simulation that the battery lifetime of devices running the framework can be extended up to 40% by service selection strategies that take into account the energy cost of a requested service compared to energy-unaware (random) service selection. For providing the energy-related input for service selection, we present (2) a generic estimator that can be customized easily for different hardware-platforms by solving a equation system with coefficients derived from benchmark measurements. We present a prototype-based case study for three different platforms, the Nokia N810, the HTC Touch Cruise and the Samsung Galaxy S showing that for all of them the estimation error is below 10% for 90% of the service calls. Furthermore, measurements conducted with a prototype implementation of the resource sharing framework show that battery lifetime can in fact be extended by energy-aware service selection strategies. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.