Software Techniques for Implementing Dynamic Network-Aware Energy-Efficient Download Managers

We introduce novel software techniques to implement dynamic, network-aware, energy-efficient download managers that significantly reduce battery drain due to weak Wi-Fi signal strength. These techniques are designed to be used in download managers that are implemented as an option for data-intensive, delay-tolerant mobile applications to use to download data. The techniques include polling the network to determine when the Wi-Fi signal strength is above a user-configurable signal-strength threshold to start or continue down-loading files, and polling the network during file downloads to determine if the signal strength falls below the signal-strength threshold to pause file downloads. When a file download is paused because the signal strength is below the signal-strength threshold, the user has the option of overriding this feature to continue the file download if the user needs the file immediately. We also introduce a novel dynamic, network-aware, energy-efficient download manager, the Lemur download manager, that implements these techniques. We present results that demonstrate that the Lemur download manager significantly reduces battery drain due to weak Wi-Fi signal strength.