Measuring power consumption in mobile devices for energy sustainable app development: A comparative study and challenges

Abstract

Mobile device usage is increasing in daily life and almost everybody carries one. The devices now have more processing power, battery, memory, and a big display. However, they have limited battery lives. Software developers should focus on optimizing applications and systems by using resources and sensors efficiently to reduce their energy consumption. Developers lack the knowledge to enhance the energy efficiency of applications as they are not aware of their energy demands during development. To calculate the power consumption of a system, various third-party power measurement tools are on the market. The selection of an appropriate tool is challenging. The developers must know the power consumption of their application to create and optimize a sustainable product. In this paper, we review a wide range of power measuring tools for mobile devices. We will provide a short introduction to these tools, how they are implemented, and compare their capabilities and performance. We will detail the accuracy, usability, limitations, and challenges of using these tools.