Power Consumption and Conservation in WiFi Based Phones: A Measurement-Based Study

WiFi based phones are becoming increasingly popular due to the ubiquitous presence of wireless LANs and the use of unlicensed spectrum. These phones use VoIP techniques over wireless LANs. In addition to the spectral efficiency and security issues, power consumption is a vital issue in making the usage of these phones widespread. Efforts are underway in improving power conservation in these phones and thus increasing the duration between recharging the battery. This paper provides a detailed anatomy of the power consumption by various components of WiFi-based phones. Through a measurement-based study of WiFi-based phones, we have analyzed the power consumption for various workloads at various components. The impacts of scan operations and related issues in the power consumption on WiFi phones are quantified through actual measurements. Several inferences and derived guidelines are provided for improving the power conservation approaches in WiFibased phones from the first of its kind experimental study.