Energy Optimisation for Mobile Device Power Consumption: A Survey and a Unified View of Modelling for a Comprehensive Network Simulation

The need for the analysis of energy consumption has become greater due to the constrained resources of mobile devices afforded by the increased usage of mobile devices and the environmental footprint of large-scale, distributed systems. Energy usage has previously been modelled for a variety of use cases in order to optimise its consumption, through both simulation and real-world use. As computing devices become ubiquitous, more mobile, and highly varied in their components and use; the networks which interconnect them have become highly dynamic in tandem. This is partly due to the mobility of devices and the constantly fluctuating resource requirements. Whilst simulation of energy consumption within networks has been conducted for specific use cases (e.g. Cloud and wireless networks), it is often not examined from a unified view. This paper attempts to review the state-of-the-art in network energy consumption, modelling, and simulation from the perspective of heterogeneous networks but with a focus upon mobile devices, and then propose a gap in which a unified view is needed. Such views will assist in understanding more about the complex relationships between varied, synergistic device types, such as those which compose mobile cloud networks.