PowTrAn: An R Package for power trace analysis

Abstract

Energy efficiency is an increasingly important non-functional property of software, especially when it runs on mobile or IoT devices. An engineering approach demands a reliable measurement of energy consumption of software while performing computational tasks. In this paper, we describe PowTrAn, an R package supporting the analysis of the power traces of a device executing software tasks. The tool analyzes traces with embedded markers, a non-invasive technique that enables gauging software efficiency based on the energy consumed by the whole device. The package effectively handles large power traces, detects work units, and computes correct energy measures, even in noisy conditions, such as those caused by multiple processes working simultaneously. PowTrAn was validated on applications in realistic conditions and multiple hardware configurations. PowTrAn also provides data visualization that helps the user to assess the measurement consistency, and it also helps to highlight possible energy outliers.

Keywords

• Energy consumption
• Power trace analysis
• R language