docs/html/training/efficient-downloads/connectivity_patterns.jd

page.title=Modifying your Download Patterns Based on the Connectivity Type
parent.title=Transferring Data Without Draining the Battery
parent.link=index.html

trainingnavtop=true
previous.title=Redundant Downloads are Redundant
previous.link=redundant_redundant.html

@jd:body

<div id="tb-wrapper">
<div id="tb">

<h2>This lesson teaches you to</h2>
<ol>
  <li><a href="#WiFi">Use Wi-Fi</a></li>
  <li><a href="#Bandwidth">Use greater bandwidth to download more data less often</a></li>
</ol>

<h2>You should also read</h2>
<ul>
  <li><a href="{@docRoot}training/monitoring-device-state/index.html">Optimizing Battery Life</a></li>
</ul>

</div>
</div>

<p>When it comes to impact on battery life, not all connection types are created equal. Not only does the Wi-Fi radio use significantly less battery than its wireless radio counterparts, but the radios used in different wireless radio technologies have different battery implications.</p>
 
<h2 id="WiFi">Use Wi-Fi</h2>

<p>In most cases a Wi-Fi radio will offer greater bandwidth at a significantly lower battery cost. As a result, you should endeavor to perform data transfers when connected over Wi-Fi whenever possible.</p>

<p>You can use a broadcast receiver to listen for connectivity changes that indicate when a Wi-Fi connection has been established to execute significant downloads, preempt scheduled updates, and potentially even temporarily increase the frequency of regular updates as described in <a href="{@docRoot}training/monitoring-device-state/index.html">Optimizing Battery Life</a> lesson <a href="{@docRoot}training/monitoring-device-state/connectivity-monitoring.html">Determining and Monitoring the Connectivity Status</a>.</p>

<h2 id="Bandwidth">Use Greater Bandwidth to Download More Data Less Often</h2>

<p>When connected over a wireless radio, higher bandwidth generally comes at the price of higher battery cost. Meaning that LTE typically consumes more energy than 3G, which is in turn more expensive than 2G.</p>

<p>This means that while the underlying radio state machine varies based on the radio technology, generally speaking the relative battery impact of the state change tail-time is greater for higher bandwidth radios.</p>

<p>At the same time, the higher bandwidth means you can prefetch more aggressively, downloading more data over the same time. Perhaps less intuitively, because the tail-time battery cost is relatively higher, it's also more efficient to keep the radio active for longer periods during each transfer session to reduce the frequency of updates.</p>

<p>For example, if an LTE radio is has double the bandwidth and double the energy cost of 3G, you should download 4 times as much data during each session&mdash;or potentially as much as 10mb. When downloading this much data, it's important to consider the effect of your prefetching on the available local storage and flush your prefetch cache regularly.</p>

<p>You can use the connectivity manager to determine the active wireless radio, and modify your prefetching routines accordingly:</p>

<pre>ConnectivityManager cm =
 (ConnectivityManager)getSystemService(Context.CONNECTIVITY_SERVICE);

TelephonyManager tm =
  (TelephonyManager)getSystemService(Context.TELEPHONY_SERVICE);
  
NetworkInfo activeNetwork = cm.getActiveNetworkInfo();
 
int PrefetchCacheSize = DEFAULT_PREFETCH_CACHE;
 
switch (activeNetwork.getType()) {
  case (ConnectivityManager.TYPE_WIFI): 
    PrefetchCacheSize = MAX_PREFETCH_CACHE; break;
  case (ConnectivityManager.TYPE_MOBILE): {
    switch (tm.getNetworkType()) {
      case (TelephonyManager.NETWORK_TYPE_LTE | 
            TelephonyManager.NETWORK_TYPE_HSPAP): 
        PrefetchCacheSize *= 4;
        break;
      case (TelephonyManager.NETWORK_TYPE_EDGE | 
            TelephonyManager.NETWORK_TYPE_GPRS): 
        PrefetchCacheSize /= 2;
        break;
      default: break;
    }
    break;
  }
  default: break;
}</pre>