About Power Management Policies

The following actions are available for Power Management Policies:

    Creating Power Management Policies

    Modifying Power Management Policies

    Deleting Power Management Policies

    Viewing Power Management Policies

A key objective in the development of RiskBand devices has been to maximize battery life. All the internal operations of the device were evaluated to determine their power usage, and the two operations that consumed the most power were

    GSM communications and

    GPS services

Consequently, by managing how often a device transmits data over the cellular network, and by managing how often GPS coordinates are established, the battery life of a RiskBand device can be significantly extended.

For GSM communication, all RiskBand devices keep the cellular modem powered on at all times. However, as there is a significant power consumption difference between being connected to the cellular network and transmitting data on the network, GSM power consumption is managed by timing how often messages are sent by the device.

 

Caution:   While it is possible to conserve battery life on a GSM device by putting the device into “Airplane Mode,” RiskBand strongly discourages this practice. In Airplane Mode, emergency messages cannot be received by the device. Furthermore, even though an emergency alarm can be initiated by a device while it is in Airplane Mode, there can be several seconds of delay while the device comes out of Airplane Mode and re-establishes a connection with the cellular network.

With GPS operations, power consumption can be managed by timing

    how often GPS coordinates are determined,

    how often these coordinates are transmitted to the RiskBand servers, and

    by turning the GPS chip off when it is not in use.

The combination of GSM transmission timing and GPS management constitutes a Power Management Policy. Several power management policies have been defined for your use in the ARIES system.

In the ARIES system there are two types of Power Management Policies: GPS Analytics policies and Extended Battery Life policies. The key difference between these policies is whether the GPS chip is ever powered off. That is, with GPS Analytics policies the GPS is always powered on. In Extended Battery Life policies, the GPS is powered off when not in use.

GPS Analytics

With GPS Analytics policies, the number of times the GPS location is established is specified as the GPS Poll Frequency. In all GPS Analytics polices this poll frequency is set to 6 seconds, meaning that the device will attempt to determine its GPS coordinates every 6 seconds.

Figure 9:   GPS Analytics Poll Frequency

PowerMgmntARIES_EqualGPSPoll_Yellow.png

The number of coordinates the device collects before sending all the coordinates to the ARIES servers is specified as the Call Home Interval. For example, with the first GPS Analytics profile, the device will store 8 sets of coordinates before sending all the coordinates to the server. The transmission gap can be determined by multiplying the GPS Poll Frequency by the Call Home Interval. So, with this first GPS Analytics policy, the device will send GPS coordinates on the GSM network every 48 seconds.

With the second policy, the transmission gap is 90 seconds, and with the third, the gap is 180 seconds, or every minute and a half.

As there can be delays in establishing GPS coordinates, these transmission gaps are approximate.

Note that the granularity of GPS data collected on the ARIES servers is the same with each of the GPS Analytics policies. What varies is the gaps between when the data is transmitted. You will have to determine what transmission gap is acceptable for your organization or your application.

While battery life is affected by many factors, it is estimated that implementing the first GPS Analytics power management policy--under normal conditions--will result in approximately 12-16 hours of battery life between full charges.

Extended Battery Life Policies

With Extended Battery Life policies, the GPS is powered off when it is not use.

In the case of the first Extended Battery Life policy, the GPS Poll Frequency is set to 240 seconds with a Call Home interval of 1. This means that

    the device powers GPS off for 240 seconds or 4 minutes,

    then it powers the GPS on long enough to obtain a set of coordinates,

    then, because it has 1 set of coordinates, it sends the coordinates immediately to the ARIES servers, and

    then it powers the GPS off for the next 240 seconds.

Figure 10:   Extended Battery Life Poll Frequency

PowerMgmntARIES_Extended_Yellow.png

For Extended Battery Life policies, the transmission gaps between GPS updates are effectively the GPS Poll Frequencies. That is, the transmission gaps between the five Extended Battery Life policies are, respectively, 4 minutes, 9 minutes, 20 minutes, and 60 minutes.

Choosing a Power Management Policy

Choosing the best power management policy for devices in your organization will require you to find a balance between settings where devices

    send the most information,

    with the lowest time latency,

    and the highest level of granularity,

against the need to extend operational battery life.

For example, if your organization is interested in applications like Geo-Fencing, or in GPS Analytics, you will want to choose one of the GPS Analytics policies. However, if your organization does not rely on extensive GPS information, you can extend battery life by choosing an Extended Battery Life policy with an acceptable level of GPS location history.

 

Note:   In order to use a GPS analytics power management policy, your organization will need to have a GPS Analytics feature license.

About Power Management during an Emergency

During an emergency, the call home interval of the device is set by the Emergency Response Policy. That is, when an emergency is triggered, the Call Home Frequency defined in the emergency policy will override whatever Power Management Policy is in use on the device. After the emergency ends, the device will revert to the call home frequency described by its power management policy.

Creating Power Management Policies

To create a power management policy:

1. In the navigation pane, under the Policy section, right-click Power Management Policies and select Create Power Management Policy.

The Create Power Management Policy dialog box appears. There are three tabs on the dialog box that contain the following fields:

Table 23:    Components of Create Power Management Policy 

Component

Required/

Optional

Description

Name

Required

The name of the power management policy. Maximum 80 characters.

Description

Optional

Description of the power management policy. Maximum 512 characters.

Organization

Required

By default this is set to <global>, which means every organization in the RiskBand ARIES Manager will have access to this policy.

Or, from the drop-down menu, you can select the specific organization you want to have access to the policy.

Feature License Required

Required

If the functionality of the policy requires frequent GPS location sampling (i.e. more often than every four minutes), select the GPS Analytics license.

Otherwise, leave the default selection which is none.

Device: GPS Poll Frequency

Optional

How often you want the device to acquire GPS coordinates. Minimum 6 seconds, maximum 7200 seconds.

Device: Call Home Interval

Required

How often do you want the device to upload GPS coordinates to the RiskBand ARIES Manager. Minimum 1, maximum 60.

Device: Power Off GPS When Not in Use:

Required

Do you want to power off the GPS when it is not in use.

There is a cost in terms of power and time to power up the GPS. Consequently, powering off the GPS when it is not in use only results in a power savings if the GPS Poll Frequency is set high: for example, greater than 90 seconds.

Device: Power Off Delay When Halted:

Required

If this value is enabled, the GPS will power off as soon as it detects that motion has stopped. The Power Off Delay value is how long the GPS will be off before it is power on again. Minimum 0 seconds, maximum 7200 seconds.

There is a cost in terms of power and time to power up the GPS. Consequently, powering off the GPS when it is not in use only results in a power savings if the Power Off Delay is set high: for example, greater than 90 seconds.

Min Battery Level to Upload Photos

Required

The minimum computed battery level (as a percentage) where photos are allowed to be uploaded. If the battery level drops below this threshold the photos will stay on the device until it has been recharged. Minimum 0, maximum 101 seconds.

Setting this value high can preserve battery life for future emergencies. Setting this value low, optimizes the chances of getting photos of an emergency to the RiskBand ARIES Manager and security personnel in a timely manner.

The exception to the values being expressed as percentages, are

   If this value is zero, then photos for closed emergencies are always uploaded, regardless of the battery level.

   If this value is 101, then photos for closed emergencies are never uploaded, regardless of the battery level.

Device Agent: GPS Poll Frequency

Required

Device Agents are not supported in this release. Minimum 6 seconds, maximum 7200 seconds.

When supported, this specifies how often you want the agent to acquire GPS coordinates.

Device Agent: Call Home Interval

Required

Device Agents are not supported in this release. Minimum 1, maximum 10.

When supported, this specifies how often you want the agent to upload GPS coordinates to the RiskBand ARIES Manager.

Device Agent: Power Off GPS Delay When Agent in Use

Required

Device Agents are not supported in this release.

When supported, this specifies whether you want the agent to power off its GPS when it is not in use. Minimum 0 seconds, maximum 7200 seconds.

There is a cost in terms of power and time to power up the GPS. Consequently, powering off the GPS when it is not in use only results in a power savings if the GPS Poll Frequency is set high: for example, greater than 90 seconds.

2. Set values in the fields as desired.

3. Click OK.

The Power Management Policy is created and is displayed in the content pane.

Modifying Power Management Policies

To modify a power management policy:

1. In the navigation pane, under the Policy section, click Power Management Policies.

2. In the content pane, right-click the Power Management Policy you want to modify and select Modify Power Management Policy.

The Modify Power Management Policy dialog box appears. The fields available on this dialog are described in Components of Create Power Management Policy .

3. Set values in the fields as desired.

4. Click OK.

The Power Management Policy is modified.

Deleting Power Management Policies

To delete a power management policy:

1. In the navigation pane, under the Policy section, click Power Management Policies.

2. In the content pane, right-click the Power Management Policyyou want to delete and select Delete Power Management Policy.

The confirmation screen displays.

3. Click OK.

4. In the second confirmation dialog, enter YES and click OK.

The Power Management Policy is deleted.

Viewing Power Management Policies

To view a power management policy:

1. In the navigation pane, under the Policy section, click Power Management Policies.

2. From the Power Management Policies content pane, right-click the name of the policy you want to view and select View Power Management Policy.

The View Power Management Policy dialog box appears. The fields available on this dialog are described in Components of Create Power Management Policy .

3. After you have finished viewing the information, click Close.

The View Power Management Policy dialog box closes.