Context-Based Network Estimation for Energy-Efficient Ubiquitous Wireless Connectivity

— Context information brings new opportunities for efficient and effective system resource management of mobile devices. In this work we focus on the use of context information to achieve energy-efficient, ubiquitous wireless connectivity. Our field-collected data show that the energy cost of network interfaces poses a great challenge to ubiquitous connectivity, despite decent availability of cellular networks. We propose to leverage the complementary strengths of Wi-Fi and cellular interfaces by automatically selecting the most efficient one based on context information. We formulate the selection of wireless interfaces as a statistical decision problem. The challenge is to accurately estimate Wi-Fi network conditions without powering up the network interface. We explore the use of different context information, including time, history, cellular network conditions, and device motion, to statistically estimate Wi-Fi network conditions with negligible overhead. We evaluate several con...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2011
• Where: TMC
• Authors: Ahmad Rahmati, Lin Zhong
• Keywords: Context Information, Network Conditions, TMC 2011, Wi-Fi Network Conditions