Cooperative Dynamic Voltage Scaling using Selective Slack Distribution in Distributed Real-Time Systems

Abstract—This work is based on the observation that existing energy management techniques for mobile devices, such as dynamic voltage scaling (DVS), are non-cooperative in the sense that they reduce the energy consumption of a single device, disregarding potential consequences for other constraints (e.g., end-toend deadlines) and/or other devices (e.g., energy consumption on neighboring devices). This paper argues that energy management in distributed real-time systems has to be end-to-end in nature, requiring a coordinated approach among communicating devices. A cooperative distributed energy management technique (Co-DVS) is proposed that i) adapts and maintains end-to-end latencies within specified timeliness requirements (deadlines) and ii) enhances energy savings at the nodes with the highest payoff factors that represent the relative benefits or significance of conserving energy at a node. The proposed technique employs a feedback-based approach to dynamically distribute end-to-end slack among the devices based on their pay-off factors. I