Optimizing Power Consumption of Always-On Applications Based on Timer Alignment

In modern smartphones there exist several applications that periodically establish data connection and/or send data to the network. For example, a mobile email application periodically checks for incoming messages from the server. Packet transmission is usually triggered by expiration of a timer. Wireless radio access resources are activated during transmission, which increases energy consumption of the terminal, particularly when connected over 3G networks. Fortunately, timing requirements are usually not strict and therefore application timers can be grouped together by using a timer alignment method.