IPv6 Operations Working Group A. Petrescu
Internet-Draft S. Ben Hadj Saïd
Intended status: Informational CEA, LIST
Expires: September 14, 2017 O. Philippot
T. Vincent
Greenspector
March 13, 2017

Power Consumption of IPv6 vs IPv4 in Smartphone
draft-petrescu-v6ops-ipv6-power-ipv4-00.txt

Abstract

This draft documents preliminary results of measuring the power consumption of using IPv6 vs using IPv4 on typical applications on a smartphone. The smartphone is connected on a 4G cellular network with either an IPv6 connection, or with an IPv4 connection, but not both simultaneously.

The preliminary results expose a roughly 5% increase in power consumption on IPv6. More experiments are planned as future work that may confirm or infirm these figures.

Status of This Memo

This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

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This Internet-Draft will expire on September 14, 2017.

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction

This document describes preliminary measurement results of power consumption of IPv6 and IPv4 on a cellular smartphone.

2. Terminology

The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [RFC2119].

APN: Access Point Network

3. Power consumption measurements in smartphone

We conducted several power consumption in differents use cases. The measurement are done with Greenspector probe. We used the smartphone Huawei mate 8 with an android version 7. In these tests, we used orange SIM card. The smartphone is able to connect to IPv4, or to IPv6 Access Point Networks (APNs) simultaneously, or distinctively. In the smartphone, only the 4G connection is active (not 3G).

The test methodology consist in an automatized test and a probe provided by Greenspector. First, we specify in the automatized test which application we want to monitor and for which duration. Then, we trasfer the test and the probe to the smartphone, launch it and wait till the end of the test. The probe generates a JSON file where measures are stored. We take out the JSON files from the smartphone and send them to Greenspector server in order to be anlyzed. Finally, different metrics (e.g. battery discharge, process CPU, network packets, etc.) are shown in a Greenspector webpage (access available upon request). Some of the measurements are graphically illustrated in a Digital Object; this object is identified by DOI 10.13140/RG.2.2.13454.77122. This Identifier can be resolved by a publically available resolver such as dx.doi.org.

All the measurements presented in this draft are preliminary and may change depending on the details of the measurement conditions.

In order to compare between IPv4 and IPv6 connections in smartphone, we considered four use cases: video streaming from YouTube, live video streaming (no cache), web browsing and file download. First, we run the test, for each of the four use cases, when the smartphone is using 4G connection and IPv4 APN. Then, we run the same tests when the smartphone is using 4G connection and IPv6 APN (distinct connection set up; in each one of these connections only IPv4 is active, or only IPv6 active).

3.1. Video streaming use case

In this use case, we launch a video of 4m44s using Youtube application in the smartphone. We associate the Greenspector probe to Youtube application in order to measure the related power consumption. The measurement results (a significant selection) are shown in Table Table 1. As we can see, in same environment and by moving from the use of IPv4 to IPv6, the battery discharge is increased by around 5%.

Power consumption in video streaming use case
IP version Battery discharge
IPv4 57.61 mAh
IPv6 60.90 mAh

3.2. Live video streaming use case

In this use case, we launch a live video during 5 minutes using Youtube application. For this use case, we considered the live streaming provided by a webcam in Amesterdam. This webcam can be reached either using IPv4 or IPv6 connection (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5N-OM9RT8o). It was setup in order to demonstrate that it is possible to use IPv6 exclusively in the production and delivery of a live video stream (https://www.terena.org/webcam/). We associate the Greenspector probe to Youtube application in order to measure the related power consumption. The measurement results are shown in Table 2. We note that, in IPv6 network, the streaming of a live video in smartphone consumes approximately 3% more than IPv4 network.

Power consumption in live video streaming use case
IP version Battery discharge
IPv4 66.11 mAh
IPv6 67.89 mAh

3.3. Web browsing use case

In this use case, we launch Chrome application with the URL that can be browsed using both of IPv4 and IPv6 connections (e.g. http://www.kame.net). We associate the Greenspector probe to Chrome application in order to measure the related power consumption. The measurement results are shown in Table 3. We note that browsing using IPv6 networks discharges the battery approximately 12% more than browsing using IPv4 networks.

Power consumption in live video streaming use case
IP version Battery discharge
IPv4 3.31 mAh
IPv6 3.73 mAh

3.4. File download use case

In this use case,we use the "andFTP" application to download a file of 7MBytes. The "andFTP" is an android application dedicated for file transfer. We associate the Greenspector probe to the andFTP application in order to measure the related power consumption. The measurement results are shown in Table 4. We note that downloading a file using IPv6 network discharge the battery approximately 36% more than using IPv4 network.

Power consumption in live video streaming use case
IP version Platform discharge
IPv4 69.21 mAh
IPv6 94.15 mAh

4. Future Work

In the next revisions of this draft, the following topics will have to be addressed:

  • Measure consumption of HTTP2 protocol, compare IPv4 and IPv6. An earlier measurement of HTTP2 is available at https://greenspector.com/articles/article-http2-latency-and-energy.html
  • Use other smartphone brand and OS version.
  • Analyse the wireshark traces to understand whether or not the right parameters are used for IPv6.
  • Use an alias in order to make sure be on same POP, and then try with different POPs.
  • Perform measurements and compare power consumption of WiFi IPv4 vs WiFi IPv6.

5. Security Considerations

There is a need to explore how much more power consumption (if any) is generated by https vs http, with IPv4 and IPv6.

6. IANA Considerations

IANA?

7. Contributors

Contributors.

8. Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the European Celtic-Plus project CONVINcE and was partially funded by Finland, France, Sweden and Turkey.

This work was performed with SIM cards on Orange IPv6 4G cellular network deployed in France; Patrick Ainard Simonet.

9. Normative References

[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997.

Authors' Addresses

Alexandre Petrescu CEA, LIST CEA Saclay Gif-sur-Yvette , Ile-de-France 91190 France Phone: +33169089223 EMail: Alexandre.Petrescu@cea.fr
Siwar Ben Hadj Said CEA, LIST CEA Saclay Gif-sur-Yvette , Ile-de-France 91190 France Phone: +33169082939 EMail: Siwar.Benhadjsaid@cea.fr
Olivier Philippot Greenspector Loire-Atlantique France EMail: ophilippot@greenspector.com
Thomas Vincent Greenspector Loire-Atlantique France EMail: tvincent@greenspector.com