Secondary Cloud Heartbeat System for IoT Reliability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing cloud services face challenges in maintaining operational reliability for network-connected devices, particularly in IoT systems, due to the complexity and cost of achieving full consistency across multiple cloud infrastructures during fault conditions.
Innovation Solution
A system comprising a primary and secondary cloud network where the secondary network maintains a subset of device state data, including heartbeat confirmation data, allowing for continued operation of devices during primary network faults without requiring full data consistency across all cloud infrastructures, and includes an invalidation agent to manage permissions for device operations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If full system duplication is implemented to increase cloud service reliability, then operational reliability is improved, but system complexity and management difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the backup system into two distinct components: a full primary cloud system and a minimal secondary cloud system. The secondary system only maintains heartbeat confirmation data rather than complete device state data, dividing the redundancy function into specialized parts that reduce overall complexity while preserving reliability benefits
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements a selective copying approach where only critical heartbeat confirmation data is replicated to the secondary cloud system, rather than copying the entire device state. This partial copying maintains the essential reliability function while avoiding the complexity of managing complete system duplicates
2Reliability
If full system duplication is implemented to increase cloud service reliability, then operational reliability is improved, but management cost and difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the backup functionality into a dedicated minimal secondary system that only handles heartbeat confirmations. This segmentation creates a simpler, more manageable architecture where each system has a specific, limited role, reducing the management overhead associated with coordinating complex full-system duplicates
3Stability of the object's composition
If complete device state data is maintained across multiple cloud infrastructures, then operational consistency is improved, but data synchronization complexity and costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential heartbeat confirmation data from the complete device state, separating it from other device information. This extraction allows the secondary cloud system to maintain operational consistency for critical functions without the burden of synchronizing entire device states, significantly reducing synchronization complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies partial action by maintaining only the minimum necessary data (heartbeat confirmations) in the secondary cloud system rather than complete device state data. This partial data maintenance achieves sufficient operational consistency for reliability purposes while avoiding the complexity of full data synchronization
Data Source
AI summary
In the presence of a network fault condition preventing communication between a communication device and a network device of a first network, a method includes receiving a heartbeat request from the communication device requesting permission for the communication device to perform a device operation. The method further includes obtaining device state data associated with the communication device and determining whether the communication device is permitted to perform the device operation based on the device state data associated with the communication device. When the communication device is permitted to perform the device operation, the method also includes transmitting a heartbeat confirmation signal to the communication device. The heartbeat confirmation signal permits the communication device to perform the device operation.