SustainableComputing:InformaticsandSystems7(2015)1
ContentslistsavailableatScienceDirect
Sustainable
Computing:
Informatics
and
Systems
j o ur na l h o me pa g e :w w w . e l s e v i e r . c o m / l o c a t e / s u s c o m
Introduction
to
special
issue
on
Software
Engineering
Aspects
of
Green
Computing
(SEAGC)
Itisourpleasuretoserveasguesteditorsofthisspecialissue
onSoftwareEngineeringAspectsofGreenComputing(SEAGC).
Since theearlydays ofICT systems, a significantamountof
researchhasbeenperformedindeveloping efficientalgorithms
fromtheperspectivesof requiredmemoryspaceand execution
time.DuetothegrowingusageoftheICTineveryaspectsofourlife,
suchastheincreasedadoptionofmobiledevices,energy-efficient
computinghasbeenextensivelystudiedduringthelastdecade.
Modernhardware requires morematerialsfor production,
con-sumesenergy,andrequiresresourcesfordisposal.Nevertheless,by
increasingtheintelligenceofsoftwareintheproductionand
oper-ationalphases,softwarecanplayamajorroleinachievinggreener
computingenvironments.
Software is frequently blamed as the cause of the energy
increaseintheproductionofhardwaresincesoftwarehasbeen
thedriverfornewandfasterhardware.Nevertheless,ifdesigned
properly,softwarecanavoidearlydisposalofhardwareaswell.
The“right”choiceofalgorithms,softwaredevelopmentprocesses,
developmentenvironmentssuchasarchitecturedescription
lan-guages,testingenvironments,theyallcanhaveastrongimpactin
reducingresourceconsumption.
Fromtheperspectiveofsoftwareengineering,variousresearch
topicscanbedefinedintheareaofgreencomputing.Thisincludes,
butnotlimitedto,(a)defininggreensoftwaredevelopment
pro-cesses, which require less resources to develop software; (b)
defininggreensoftwaredevelopmenttools;(c)developinggreen
algorithms;and(d)adoptingsoftwaresystemsindifferent
appli-cationdomains forthepurposeofcontrollinghardwaresothat
energy-efficientcomputingcanbeachieved.
Theseareasofresearchcategoriesingreencomputingcanbe
furtherdividedaccordingtothesub-areasofsoftwareengineering,
suchasrequirementsforenergy-efficientsystems,model-driven
development of green software, programming languages for
energy-efficientcomputing,energy-efficientdatabasetechniques,
etc.Inthisspecialissue,weintendedtoemphasizetheneedfor
studyinggreencomputingfromtheperspectiveofsoftware
engi-neeringmethodsandtools.
Aligningwiththehigh-qualitystandardsof SUSCOM,in this
special issue we have applied a rigorous review process. The
papers were reviewed by three to four experts and discussed
extensively. Among the submittedpapers, two papers entitled
“A systematic literature review on Energy Efficiency in Cloud
Software Architectures”, and “AStudy of Energy-Aware
Imple-mentation Techniques: Redistribution of Computational Jobsin
Mobile Apps” were accepted to be included in this special
issue.
Inthefirstpaper,theauthorsperformasystematicliterature
reviewbyinvestigatingcloudsoftwarearchitectureswith
energy-efficiencyastheprimaryconcern.Thereviewformsastrongbase
forfurthersystematicresearchinthisareaThesecondpaperuses
measurementstoinvestigatetheimpactof theimplementation
techniquesMethodReallocationandMethodOffloadinginJavaand
CindifferentexecutionscopesoftheAndroidOSruntimeandin
remoteservers.Asaresult,theauthorsidentifiedthecasesinwhich
it isconvenienttoreallocatetheprocessingjob,andwhen itis
advisabletooffloadittoanexternalinfrastructure.
Webelievethattheselectedpaperslayastronggroundforthe
researchandassuchwillinspireotherresearchersintheareaof
softwareengineeringaspectsofgreencomputing.Wehopethat
thereaderswillfindthepapersinthisspecialissueinformative
anduseful.
Theguesteditorswishtothanktheauthorsofallthesubmitted
manuscripts,withoutthemthisspecialissuewouldnotbepossible.
Theyalsothankthereviewerswhoprovidedathoroughevaluation
ofthesubmittedmanuscriptsinatimelymanner.Weappreciate
theassistanceoftheSpecialIssuesEditor-in-Chief,BehroozShirazi,
andtheSUSCOMeditorialstaffthroughouttheprocessofbringing
outthespecialissue.
SomayehMalakuti∗
TechnicalUniversityofDresden,Germany
WolfgangLohmann
IndependentResearcher,St.Gallen,Switzerland
MehmetAksit
UniversityofTwente,TheNetherlands
∗Correspondingauthor. E-mailaddresses: somayeh.malakuti@tu-dresden.de(S.Malakuti), wolfgang.lohmann@gmail.com(W.Lohmann), m.aksit@utwente.nl(M.Aksit). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.suscom.2015.05.001
