Abstract
The Global energy consumption and carbon footprint related to operating mobile phones in wireless networks is increasing significantly. In order to determine the overall energy consumption of a wireless network, both the operation of the network infrastructure and the devices connected to that network must be considered. Although the larger part of the global energy consumption of wireless networks is consumed at base station sites and access points, a significant part is consumed from the operation of mobile phones. In this paper, system level power consumption models for mobile phones in terms of 2G, 3G and Wi-Fi are presented. The developed model increases the accuracy of the current power profiles by considering different stages of a single transmission, including the variables affecting each stage. The power states of wireless interfaces, maintenance, network attachment/detachment and network resource allocation policies of different network operators are also considered to obtain a complete model that can accurately predict that power consumption at every stage of connectivity. A comparison between power consumption of different radio access technologies is also included to promote energy efficient use of spectrum. Using the system level power models presented in this paper, the contribution of the operation of mobile phones to overall energy consumption of wireless communication networks can be determined.