Software Design of Energy-Aware Peripheral Control for Sustainable Internet-of-Things Devices

Abstract

The resource-efficient development of technical devices is one of the most important non-functional requirements regarding to global warming. This applies in particular to the growing field of the (Industrial) Internet of Things. The energy consumption of such systems must be minimized to ensure a long operational lifetime. The realization requires to exploit the possibilities of the complete system (microcontroller and external peripherals) by the software application. In many cases, however, the software engineer is not aware of the energy-saving properties of the hardware platform. This paper introduces a novel software framework that aims to bridge the gap between the hardware level and the application level. It enables vertical control, i.e., consistent access across multiple software architectural layers. This paper describes the framework in terms of design patterns, shows an implementation along the C++20 standard, and concludes with an evaluation on a popular hardware platform.