Test setup (via Aalto University)
Aalto University in Finland researchers have their hearts in the right place, but their minds focused in the wrong market. In efforts to bring smartphones to power restrictive countries and people, the researchers have cut the power consumption to 3g based smartphones by up to 74%, they claim.
Professor Jukka Manner explained the goal, "This new solution is particularly valuable in developing countries because it provides significantly more effective Internet access to a much larger number of people. At the moment, only a small percent can access the Internet from a wired connection, but 90 percent of the African population lives in areas with mobile phone network coverage. Mobile phone usage is increasing rapidly. However, the use of mobile Internet services is hindered by users not having access to the power grid to recharge their phones."
The energy saving comes from a combination of HTTP compression, efficient data caching, and optimized use of network proxies. The wireless radio, 3g in the test cases, is in idle/sleep mode when not used and only on when absolutely necessary. Constant data streams are instead packaged into bursts. The proxy collects all the necessary data for the end user until it is ready to send a burst. The user's phone wakes up, collects the data, and then returns to sleep mode.
Not only would developing areas benefit from this novel process, but the entire smartphone user base would as well. The average smartphone, at the moment, can last up to a day at most. Having the safety net of almost 2 would be welcomed by all. Let us hope their research affects us all soon.
Eavesdropper