Software Energy Profiling: Comparing Releases of a Software Product

E.A. Jagroep, J.M.E.M. van der Werf, G. Procaccianti, P. Lago, Sjaak Brinkkemper, L. Blom, Rob van Vliet

Research output: Chapter in Book / Report / Conference proceedingConference contributionAcademicpeer-review

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Abstract

In the quest for energy efficiency of Information and Communication Technology, so far research has mostly focused on the role of hardware. However, as hardware technology becomes more sophisticated, the role of software becomes crucial. Recently, the impact of software on energy consumption has been acknowledged as significant by researchers in software engineering. In spite of that, measuring the energy consumption of software has proven to be a challenge, due to the large number of variables that need to be controlled to obtain reliable measurements. Due to cost and time constraints, many software product organizations are unable to effectively measure the energy consumption of software. This prevents them to be in control over the energy efficiency of their products.

In this paper, we propose a software energy profiling method to reliably compare the energy consumed by a software product across different releases, from the perspective of a software organization. Our method allows to attribute differences in energy consumption to changes in the software. We validate our profiling method through an empirical experiment on two consecutive releases of a commercial software product. We demonstrate how the method can be applied by organizations and provide an analysis of the software related changes in energy consumption. Our results show that, despite a lack of precise measurements, energy consumption differences between releases of a software product can be quantified down to the level of individual processes. Additionally, the results provide insights on how specific software changes might affect energy consumption.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 38th International Conference on Software Engineering, ICSE 2016, Austin, TX, USA, May 14-22, 2016 - Companion Volume
EditorsLaura Dillon, Willem Visser, Laurie Williams
Place of PublicationAustin, Texas
PublisherACM
Pages523-532
ISBN (Print)9781450342056
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2016
EventInternational Conference on Software Engineering - Austin, Texas
Duration: 1 Jan 20161 Jan 2016

Conference

ConferenceInternational Conference on Software Engineering
Period1/01/161/01/16

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