Software Engineering Principles for the Development of Power-Efficient Mobile IoT Devices

An Internet of Things (IoT) is a system where various "things" are connected to each other via a wired/wireless network, and where information is gathered, processed, and interchanged/shared. One of the important actors in IoT is a mobile IoT device (such as a smartphone or tablet). These devices tend to consume a large amount of power in order to provide various high performance application services; however, as the devices cannot be supplied with power all the time, efficient power management is necessary. Power management of mobile IoT devices involves complex relationships between various entities such as application processors (APs), HW modules inside/outside AP, operating systems, mobile IoT platforms, and applications. In order to develop power-efficient mobile IoT devices, a method is needed to systematically analyze these relationships and manage power based on a clear understanding of them. To address this problem, software engineering principles for the development of power-efficient mobile IoT devices are presented in this paper. The feasibility of the proposed principles have been validated in the domain of smartphone camera power management.