| dc.description.abstract | The relationship between battery consumption in
smartphones and the usage statistics of a phone is direct. Modern
smartphones, even low-end, are equipped with multiple wireless
technologies, e.g. GSM, 3G, WiFi and Bluetooth. Each of these
technologies has a different energy consumption profile. A
wireless mesh project in the Mankosi community in rural South
Africa is about to introduce low-end smartphones onto the
network. The mesh network is powered with solar-charged
batteries because the community at present does not have
electricity. Local residents also use these batteries to recharge cell
phones at a nominal cost. Introduction of smartphones will
increase the recharge frequency as phone usage will increase;
thus draining a phone battery more quickly, as well as escalate
recharge costs. Thus, the smartphones must be chosen and used
effectively in order for batteries to last longer. Related work
identifies WiFi wireless technology as the most battery efficient
way of transfer when compared to GSM, 3G and Bluetooth. This
research proposes experiments to further investigate energy
efficiency of WiFi in low-end smartphones that we intend to use
for local and breakout voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) calls
and data services, on a rural wireless mesh network. | en_US |
