Application Instrumentation for End-to-End Energy Traceability

Abstract

Software systems, and especially web applications, increasingly contribute to global energy demand as they serve millions of users daily. Reducing this demand requires not only efficient hardware but also a systematic approach to measuring software energy consumption. Since end users initiate every computation through their interactions, understanding the relationship between user behaviour and energy consumption is central to building more sustainable applications. This thesis contributes to this objective by introducing an End-to-End Web Energy Traceability system that formalises user-centric attribution of energy consumption across frontend, backend, and database layers. This system integrates heterogeneous telemetry into coherent end-to-end traces that follow real user journeys, enabling the identification of energy hotspots and the analysis of behaviour-driven consumption patterns. By reframing the problem in terms of challenges and solutions, the thesis establishes a conceptual basis for future research and the development of tools that can attribute energy consumption to user actions, opening the way for more energy-aware software design and operation.