Jouler: A policy framework enabling effective and flexible smartphone energy management

Smartphone energy management is a complex challenge. Considerable energy-related variation exists between devices, apps, and users; and while over-allocating energy can strand the user with an empty battery, over-conserving energy can unnecessarily degrade performance. But despite this complexity, current smartphone platforms include “onesize- fits-all” energy management policies that cannot satisfy the diverse needs of all users. To address this problem we present Jouler, a framework enabling effective and flexible smartphone energy management by cleanly separating energy control mechanisms from management policies. Jouler provides both imperative mechanisms that can control all apps, and cooperative mechanisms that allow modified apps to adapt to the user’s energy management goals. We have implemented Jouler for Android and used it to provide three new energy management policies to 203 smartphone users. Results from our deployment indicate that users appreciate more flexible smartphone energy management and that Jouler policies can help users achieve their energy management goals.