Power Consumption Model

[cbausch]

Hi, I am doing research on cell phone energy consumption and was hoping to find data on power consumption due to different user applications such as talk, gps, internet browsing, sms text messaging etc. Any information is helpful.
thanks

 

[jraef]

All I know is, the amount of battery life I experience seems to be inversely proportional to the importance of the call I am waiting for.

Seriously though, take a look at this.

http://www.cs.umass.edu/~arun/papers/TailEnder.pdf

"Dear future generations: Please accept our apologies. We were rolling drunk on petroleum."
— Kilgore Trout (via Kurt Vonnegut)
For the best use of Eng-Tips, please click here -> faq731-376

 

[VEBill]

Power consumption versus usage mode will vary with model of phone and chipsets used, specific version, and possibly even vary with the particular software version loaded into the phone. It will even vary with user settings such as screen brightness.

In gereral, using GPS consumes a lot. The battery on my iPhone will be flat after only 2 to 3 hours of GPS navigation.

If this is a serious research project, you could purchase some phones and make some measurements.

 

[cbausch]

Yes GPS is a huge power consumer because the phone (at least the Iphone 4 as I was told my their technical assistance) is connected to 3G and the display stays on while navigating, both of which have considerable power needs. Getting the right specs on these phones is really the problem, because the whole ITC industry is very secretive. I am really trying to come up with a tighter estimation of days/charge of a typical smartphone, but have to model a wide range due to the extreme variation in their usages and power consumption.

 

[itsmoked]

The phones continuously vary their power consumption due to the transmit channel. A phone near a cell-site will use less power than one far away. There are so many subtle and different situations involved with every mode of communication, I can't see ever knowing the "consumption" differences between the various modes amounting to a fixed usable value.

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[zappedagain]

And don't forget that the backlight on the LCD display is probably the second biggest consumer of battery life. Lots of video (movies, etc.) moves the graphics ICs into third place, so all of these can significantly affect the battery life (i.e. power consumption) equations.

Z