Battery drain when mainting GPRS connection?

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ChrisM - 28 Aug 2008 15:27 GMT

I have an application running on my mobile that sends a small amount of data
at a regular interval (say every 60s).

How much of an additional drain on the battery will it be to keep the
connection open between these intervals (but not sending any data) the whole
time the application is running, versus opening the connection sending the
data and closing the connection every 60s.
So in other words, how much of a drain is it on my battery to keep a GRPS
connection open? Is it anything like the battery drain to keep a voice
connection open?

Also, does anyone know roughly what the overhead in Bytes (or Kb) is to open
and close a GPRS connection?

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Regards,
Chris.
(Remove Elvis's shoes to email me)

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Peter - 30 Aug 2008 01:37 GMT

>I have an application running on my mobile that sends a small amount of data
>at a regular interval (say every 60s).
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
>connection open? Is it anything like the battery drain to keep a voice
>connection open?

I would not think it is that much. Much less than a voice or data
call.

>Also, does anyone know roughly what the overhead in Bytes (or Kb) is to open
>and close a GPRS connection?

The biggest overhead is probably the DHCP process. My guess is a few k
- you can see a part of that in the Status window for the network
connection on the PC.

This is why a lot of commercial data applications use dial-up and not
GPRS. They dial to a private modem. The instant the call is made you
can transfer data. No DHCP, authentication or other rubbish. GPRS or
3G forces you to making the full internet connection. However, your 60
sec quiet period is pretty short, and GPRS may be the best solution.

However, I think one can get a fixed IP from certain networks, and
then you could avoid the DHCP stuff.

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