Energy Consumption of Personal Computing Including Portable Communication Devices

In light of the increased awareness of global energy consumption, questions are being asked about the energy contribution of computing equipment. Although studies have documented the share of energy consumption by this type of equipment over the years, research has rarely characterized the increasing share contributed by the rapidly growing segment of portable computing. Portable computing is widely predicted to be a dominant mode of computing and communication in the future, and accounting for its energy consumption is necessary in order to be energy efficient in the days ahead. This work takes a fresh and updated look at energy consumption as the result of computing devices with regard to global consumption, and pays special attention to the contribution of portable computing devices. We further quantify the impact of energy consumed by the computing sector on the environment, and the cost of electricity for an average residential consumer. Finally, based on the results of this study, we provide recommendations for the computer networking community for sustainable portable/mobile computing.