Improving energy efficiency of Wi-Fi sensing on smartphones

Abstract

Mobile data usage over cellular networks has been dramatically increasing over the past years. Wi-Fi based wireless networks offer a high-bandwidth alternative for offloading such data traffic. However, intermittent connectivity, and battery power drain in mobile devices, inhibits always-on connectivity even in areas with good Wi-Fi coverage. This paper presents WiFisense, a system that employs user mobility information retrieved from low-power sensors (e.g., accelerometer) in smartphones, and further includes adaptive Wi-Fi sensing algorithms, to conserve battery power while improving Wi-Fi usage. We implement the proposed system in Android-based smartphones and evaluate the implementation in both indoor and outdoor Wi-Fi networks. Our evaluation results show that WiFisense saves energy consumption for scans by up to 79% and achieves considerable increase in Wi-Fi usage for various scenarios.