CODEWITHSUNDEEP
androidpower-management
Alex Orlov
Alex Orlov

Reputation: 18107

Android battery when working with http

Recently google introduced push-to-device service, but it's only available 2.2 and up.

I need a similar system in my app, and I'm trying to get around limitations.

The issue is battery life. Since the user must be notified immediately about the changes on the server, I thought to implement a service that would live in the background (standard Android service) and query the server for updates.

Of course, querying the server, even each second, will cost a lot of bandwidth, as well as battery, so my question is this: does it make a difference if the server is holding the response for some period of time? (the idea behind Comet type ajax request)

Works like this:

It will definitely cost less bandwidth, but will it consume less (or even more) battery?

Upvotes: 3

Views: 1017

Answers (2)

Chris Thompson
Chris Thompson

Reputation: 35598

Holding a TCP socket (and consequently waiting for an HTTP response) as you suggest is probably going to be your best option. What you've described is actually already implemented via HTTP continuation requests. Have a look at the Bayeux protocol for HTTP push notifications. Also, check out the Android implementation here. For what it's worth, that's definitely what I would use. I haven't done any sort of analysis of it, but this allows you to minimize the amount of data transmitted over the line (which is directly proportional to the power consumption) by allowing the connection to hang for as long as possible.

In short, the way Bayeux works is very similar to what you've suggested. The client opens a request and the server waits on it. If it has something to send, it sends it otherwise it simply waits. Eventually, the request will timeout. At that point, the client makes another request. What you attain is near instantaneous push to the client from the server without constant polling and duplication of information like HTTP headers, etc.

Upvotes: 2

user535617
user535617

Reputation: 644

When the phone is actively using the networks, it's battery is used more. That is to say when it sends the request and when it receives the response. It will also be using battery just by listening for a response. However, will the phone download data, checking to see if there's a response? Or will the phone just be open to receiving it and the server will push the response out to the phone? That is mainly what it depends on. If the phone is just open to receiving the response but does not actually use the network while trying to download some response the whole time it's waiting, it should use less battery.

Additionally, the phone sending a query every minute instead of every second definitely uses less battery, as far as using the networks goes. However it depends on how you make the phone hold, if you tie it up with very complex logic to make it wait it may not help battery life. That's probably not the case, however, and I would say that in all likelihood this would work out for you.

In closing, it should help the battery but there are ways you could make it in which it would not. It wouldn't hurt to write the program and then just change some type of variable (for example WAIT_TIME to 1 second instead of 1 minute) and test battery usage though, would it?

Upvotes: 1

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