Data transmission scheduling using energy consumption profile of terminal device

1. A method of controlling energy-consumption associated with data transmission between a terminal device and a mobile network, the method comprising:

a node of the mobile network obtaining an energy consumption profile of the terminal device, the energy consumption profile specifying characteristics of multiple energy sinks in the terminal device;

the node performing scheduling of the data transmission based on the obtained energy consumption profile,

wherein the energy consumption profile specifies dependencies of sizes of the energy sinks among each other.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the node receiving the energy consumption profile from the terminal device.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the node receiving the energy consumption profile comprises the node receiving the energy consumption profile when setting up a connection between the mobile network and the terminal device.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the node receiving the energy consumption profile from a further node of the mobile network.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the energy consumption profile is obtained based on a device type identifier of the terminal device.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

the node receiving an indicator of an energy saving preference of the terminal device;

the node performing the scheduling based on the received indicator of the energy saving preference.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the energy saving preference pertains to a certain virtual connection between the mobile network and the terminal device.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the scheduling performed by the node comprises controlling at least one of:

frequency resource allocation;

time resource allocation;

transmission power; reception power;

modulation scheme;

coding scheme;

transmission data rate;

reception data rate;

transport block size;

transmission bandwidth; and

reception bandwidth of the data transmission.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

the node obtaining a further energy consumption profile of the terminal device, the further energy consumption profile specifying characteristics of multiple energy sinks in the terminal device, the energy consumption profile and the further energy consumption profile pertaining to different operating modes of the terminal device;

the node selecting between the energy consumption profile and the further energy consumption profile based on a current operating mode of the terminal device;

the node performing the scheduling based on the selected one of the energy consumption profile and the further energy consumption profile.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

the node receiving an indicator of energy availability status of the terminal device;

the node performing the scheduling based on the received indicator of energy availability status.

11. A method of controlling energy-consumption associated with data transmission between a terminal device and a mobile network, the method comprising:

the terminal device determining an energy consumption profile specifying characteristics of multiple energy sinks in the terminal device;

the terminal device sending the energy consumption profile to a node of the mobile network which is responsible for scheduling the data transmission,

wherein the energy consumption profile specifies dependencies of sizes of the enemy sinks among each other.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the terminal device sending the energy consumption profile comprises the terminal device sending the energy consumption profile when setting up a connection between the mobile network and the terminal device.

13. The method of claim 11 , further comprising the terminal device sending an indicator of an energy saving preference of the terminal device to the node.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the energy saving preference pertains to a certain virtual connection between the mobile network and the terminal device.

15. The method of claim 11 , comprising:

the terminal device determining a further energy consumption profile of the terminal device, the further energy consumption profile specifying characteristics of multiple energy sinks in the terminal device, the energy consumption profile and the further energy consumption profile pertaining to different operating modes of the terminal device;

the terminal device sending the further energy consumption profile to the node.

16. The method of claim 11 , further comprising the terminal device sending an indicator of energy availability status to the node.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the multiple energy sinks contribute to a total energy consumption of the terminal device for transmitting the scheduled data transmission, and/or each of the multiple energy sinks contribute to a total energy consumption of the terminal device for receiving the scheduled data transmission.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the multiple energy sinks comprise at least two of the following:

energy sink due to switching on a transmitter;

energy sink due to switching off the transmitter;

energy sink due to keeping the transmitter switched on; and

energy sink due to operation of the transmitter at a particular transmission power, transmission bandwidth, and/or transmission data rate.

19. The method of claim 17 , wherein the multiple energy sinks comprise at least two of the following:

energy sink due to switching on the receiver;

energy sink due to switching off the receiver;

energy sink due to keeping the receiver switched on; and

energy sink due to operation of the receiver at a particular reception power, reception bandwidth, and/or reception data rate.

20. The method of claim 11 , wherein the energy consumption profile specifies whether the dependency is linear or non-linear.

21. The method of claim 11 , wherein the energy consumption profile specifies a dependency of a size of at least one of the energy sinks on transmission power and/or reception power.

22. The method of claim 11 , wherein the energy consumption profile specifies a dependency of a size of at least one of the energy sinks on transmission bandwidth and/or reception bandwidth.

23. The method of claim 11 , wherein the energy consumption profile specifies a dependency of a size of at least one of the energy sinks on transmission data rate and/or reception data rate.

24. The method of claim 11 , wherein at least one of the energy sinks is associated with a scheduling related event.

25. The method of claim 11 , wherein the energy consumption profile specifies the size of at least one of the energy sinks in terms of power.

26. The method of claim 11 , wherein the energy consumption profile specifies a size of at least one of the energy sinks in terms of energy.

27. The method of claim 11 , wherein the energy consumption profile specifies a difference in size of at least one of the energy sinks between idle state and connected state of the terminal device.

28. A node for scheduling data transmission between a terminal device and a mobile network, the node comprising a processor and memory, the memory containing instructions executable by the processor whereby the node is configured to:

obtain an energy consumption profile of the terminal device, the energy consumption profile specifying characteristics of multiple energy sinks in the terminal device;

perform scheduling of the data transmission based on the obtained energy consumption profile,

wherein the energy consumption profile specifies dependencies of sizes of the energy sinks among each other.

29. The node of claim 28 , wherein the node is a base station of the mobile network and comprises a radio interface for data transmission between the terminal device and the mobile network.

30. A terminal device, comprising:

a radio interface for data transmission between the terminal device and a base station of a mobile network;

a processor; and

memory, the memory containing instructions executable by the processor whereby the terminal device is configured to:

determine an energy consumption profile, the energy consumption profile specifying characteristics of multiple energy sinks in the terminal device;

send the energy consumption profile to a node of the mobile network which is responsible for scheduling the data transmission,

wherein the energy consumption profile specifies dependencies of sizes of the energy sinks among each other.

31. A computer program product stored in a non-transitory computer readable medium for controlling energy-consumption associated with data transmission between a terminal device and a mobile network, the computer program product comprising software instructions which, when run on a processor of a node of the mobile network, causes the node to:

obtain an energy consumption profile of the terminal device, the energy consumption profile specifying characteristics of multiple energy sinks in the terminal device;

performing scheduling of the data transmission based on the obtained energy consumption profile,

wherein the energy consumption profile specifies dependencies of sizes of the energy sinks among each other.

32. A computer program product stored in a non-transitory computer readable medium for controlling energy-consumption associated with data transmission between a terminal device and a mobile network, the computer program product comprising software instructions which, when run on a processor of the terminal device, causes the terminal device to:

determine an energy consumption profile specifying characteristics of multiple energy sinks in the terminal device;

send the energy consumption profile to a node of the mobile network which is responsible for scheduling the data transmission,

wherein the energy consumption profile specifies dependencies of sizes of the energy sinks among each other.