BMC Lossy Compression for Reliable Hardware Metering
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Solution Overview
Problem
The hardware-as-a-service model requires reliable hardware metering data for billing, but existing technologies face challenges in efficiently collecting and managing this data, especially in systems with many endpoints, and are not resilient during network downtime or interruptions.
Innovation Solution
A baseboard management controller (BMC) is configured to monitor hardware component utilization, perform lossy compression of data when communication is lost, and transmit reduced data sets once connectivity is restored, ensuring continuous data delivery and minimizing resource consumption.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If full hardware metering data is collected and stored for all endpoints, then billing accuracy is improved, but data storage requirements and system resource consumption increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential metering data needed for billing purposes from the complete hardware utilization data stream. By identifying and extracting only the critical metrics required for accurate billing, the system maintains billing precision while dramatically reducing the volume of data that needs to be stored and transmitted.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies partial action by collecting and storing only a subset of the complete metering data - specifically those elements necessary for billing accuracy. This selective approach captures sufficient information for financial purposes without the excessive data collection that would be required to maintain complete monitoring records, thereby reducing storage requirements while preserving billing integrity.
2Reliability
If hardware metering data is transmitted frequently to ensure data integrity, then billing reliability is improved, but network bandwidth consumption and system overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and transmits only the essential billing-related metering data points rather than complete utilization records. This selective extraction maintains the reliability needed for accurate billing while significantly reducing the amount of data transmitted over the network, thereby lowering bandwidth consumption and system overhead.
Solution Approach 2:
The system transmits partial metering data - specifically the subset required for billing purposes - rather than transmitting complete monitoring data. This partial transmission approach ensures billing reliability is maintained while avoiding the excessive network resource consumption that would result from transmitting full utilization data sets.
3Loss of information
If complete metering data is retained during network interruptions for later transmission, then data completeness is improved, but data storage requirements and risk of data loss increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and retains only the critical billing-related metering data during network interruptions, rather than buffering complete utilization data. This selective retention maintains data completeness for billing purposes while minimizing the storage burden and reducing the risk associated with maintaining large buffered data sets during outages.
Solution Approach 2:
The system retains partial metering data - specifically the essential elements needed for billing - during network interruptions. This partial retention strategy ensures that sufficient information is preserved to maintain billing completeness without the excessive storage requirements and associated risks of retaining complete utilization data sets.
4Measurement precision
If detailed hardware utilization data is collected for all components, then monitoring accuracy is improved, but processing overhead and system resource consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential metering data elements from complete hardware utilization monitoring. By identifying and extracting specifically those data points required for billing and basic monitoring accuracy, the system maintains measurement precision while significantly reducing the complexity of data processing, storage, and transmission operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The system collects and processes partial metering data - the subset necessary for billing accuracy and essential monitoring - rather than processing complete utilization data for all hardware components. This partial data approach maintains adequate monitoring accuracy while avoiding the excessive processing overhead and system complexity that would result from handling complete data sets.
Data Source
AI summary
A baseboard management controller (BMC) installed in a server or other hardware device may perform operations to monitor and safeguard metering data for one or more hardware component of a server that includes the BMC. The BMC may periodically transmit a metering data message over a network to an event destination, where the metering data message includes the utilization levels of the hardware component during a period of operation. In response to detecting a loss of communication with the event destination, the BMC may perform lossy compression of the monitored utilization levels for the hardware component, wherein the lossy compression produces a utilization value that is representative of the monitored utilization levels, but uses less data storage capacity. The utilization value may be transmitted to the event destination instead of the monitored utilization levels in response to determining that communication with the event destination has been reestablished.