Central Controller Timestamp Delay for Packet Ordering
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing data packet reception and storage systems face challenges in ensuring centralized address generation and maintaining the order of data packets across multiple receiving and forwarding elements, particularly due to synchronization issues and delays in communication, which can lead to incorrect address assignment and packet ordering.
Innovation Solution
A system comprising a controlling unit and physically separate data receiving and forwarding elements, where the controlling unit synchronizes clocks across all elements to determine a point in time of packet receipt and applies a predetermined time delay to derive an address for storing data packets, ensuring they are stored in the correct order, even in the presence of processing delays or communication delays.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If multiple physically separate data receiving and forwarding elements are used to increase processing capacity, then productivity is improved, but maintaining correct packet ordering and centralized address generation becomes more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides the data receiving function into multiple physically separate receiving and forwarding elements, each capable of independently receiving packets. This segmentation increases processing capacity while the central controller maintains unified address generation for all elements, ensuring reliable packet ordering despite the distributed architecture.
Solution Approach 2:
A central controller acts as an intermediary between multiple receiving and forwarding elements and the storage system. The controller receives timestamp information from all elements, determines the correct storage address based on packet arrival order, and returns addresses to the appropriate elements. This intermediary ensures centralized address generation and maintains packet ordering across the distributed system.
2Measurement precision
If real-time address determination is implemented to maintain packet ordering, then measurement precision is improved, but processing speed decreases due to the need for time delay
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies a predetermined time delay to the timestamp before using it for address determination. This preliminary action ensures that the address is determined at a point in time that is at or after the actual packet receipt time, guaranteeing correct ordering. The delay is carefully chosen to be sufficient for synchronization but minimal to reduce time loss.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the timestamp parameter by adding a predetermined time delay to it. This parameter transformation ensures that the modified timestamp reflects a point in time that accounts for processing delays, allowing the central controller to determine addresses that maintain correct packet ordering while minimizing the impact on overall processing speed.
3Measurement precision
If clock synchronization is implemented across all receiving elements, then measurement precision is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The central controller performs multiple functions: it generates addresses for storage, receives timestamp information from all receiving elements, determines packet arrival order, and manages clock synchronization. By consolidating these functions in a single controller, the system achieves precise time measurement across all elements without requiring complex distributed synchronization mechanisms.
Data Source
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AI summary
An apparatus and a method where a plurality of physically separate data receiving/analyzing elements receive data packets and time stamp these. A controlling unit determines a storing address for each data packet based on at least the time stamp, where the controlling unit does not perform the determination of the address until a predetermined time delay has elapsed after the time of receipt.