EMMA : A Context-Aware Middleware for Energy Management on Mobile Devices

The rapid increase of smartphones’ sensing, computation and communication capabilities is accompanied by a growing demand for energy. Both, short-term and long-term energy allocation is a bottleneck which severely constrains a mobile device’s capabilities and usability. It is thus one of the most critical challenges for current device development. Despite of numerous hardware improvements, e.g., concerning the energy consumption of sensors and displays, as well as the development of more capable batteries, this issue remains to be solved. Hence, software-based approaches can be used to optimize the energy management of mobile devices according to a user’s preferences, context information and the current energetic state of a device. In this paper, we specify the requirements for a modular energy management middleware architecture coined EMMA, which considers the dynamic and modular integration of existing energy improvement concepts in relation to the device’s current energy status and active services as well as the users context and preferences. Furthermore, we present a prototype application which demonstrates some of EMMA’s core concepts. Keywords–mobile energy management; contextual service provision