Mobile computing - A green computing resource

TLDR

Cloud computing relies on shared resources, yet conventional servers are energy‑hungry, while the growing number of idle mobile devices offers a potential source of low‑power computing power. The authors aim to design and implement GEMCloud, a mobile‑device‑based cloud system that leverages energy‑efficient smartphones and tablets as computing resources. They evaluate the computing power and energy efficiency of mobile devices through comprehensive experiments. The prototype demonstrates that a cooperative mobile‑device cloud can save 55% to 98% of the energy consumption of conventional server‑based clouds while delivering comparable computing speed.

Abstract

Cloud computing provides an approach to accessing shared computing resources. However, a traditional cloud is composed of powerful but energy-hungry workstations. The growth of the population of mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets provides huge amount of idling computing power. In this paper, we describe the design and implementation of a mobile computing system prototype named GEMCloud that utilizes energy efficient mobile devices (e.g., smartphones and tablets) as computing resources. We evaluate the computing power and energy efficiency of the mobile devices through comprehensive experiments. The results show that a cloud computing system with enough mobile devices working cooperatively is able to save 55% to 98% of the energy consumption of conventional server-based clouds while providing comparable computing speed.