Title: Client-Centered Energy Savings for TCP Downloads
Speaker: Dave Lowenthal
Details: Jan 28 at 11am in CoRE A.
Host: Ricardo Bianchini.

Abstract:

In mobile devices, the wireless network interface card (WNIC) consumes a
significant portion of overall system energy.  One way to reduce energy
consumed by a device is to transition its WNIC to a lower-power sleep mode
when data is not being received or transmitted.

This talk discusses client-centered techniques for saving energy during
TCP downloads.  The basic idea is that the client predicts when packets
will arrive, keeping the WNIC in sleep mode only when necessary.  
Furthermore, the client increases the amount of time that can be spent in
sleep mode by shaping the traffic; in particular, the client convinces the
server to send data in bursts rather in a smooth manner, trading lower
WNIC energy cost for increased transmission time.  Our technique uses
client-side modifications to TCP and does not rely on any assistance from
the server, a proxy, or IEEE 802.11b power-saving mode.  Results show that
our scheme can save significant WNIC energy with only a modest increase in
the transmission time.

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