Coordinating cellular background transfers using loadsense

To minimize battery drain due to background communication in cellular-connected devices such as smartphones, the duration for which the cellular radio is kept active should be minimized. This, in turn, calls for scheduling the background communication so as to maximize the throughput. It has been recognized in prior work that a key determinant of throughput is the wireless link quality. However, as we show here, another key factor is the load in the cell, arising from the communication of other nodes. Unlike link quality, the only way, thus far, for a cellular client to obtain a measure of load has been to perform active probing, which defeats the goal of minimizing the active duration of the radio.