Data Management Queue for Implantable Medical Devices
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Solution Overview
Problem
Implantable medical devices (IMDs) face challenges in managing data transmission, leading to the transmission of stale data due to delayed communication protocols, which wastes resources and results in unusable data for external devices.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a system with a data management queue that monitors and removes data items based on expected arrival times, employs a packet transmission queue, and includes components for determining deadlines and priorities to ensure timely data transmission, thereby preventing the transmission of stale data.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If data is buffered in a queue for transmission, then data transmission reliability is improved, but data staleness increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by calculating expected arrival times for buffered data items and comparing them against latest acceptable arrival times before transmission. This allows the system to proactively identify and remove stale data items from the buffer before they are transmitted, ensuring that only timely data is sent while maintaining the buffering benefit for reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements a feedback mechanism where data items are monitored in the buffer, their expected arrival times are continuously evaluated, and stale items are automatically removed. This closed-loop feedback ensures that data freshness is maintained while preserving the reliability benefits of buffered transmission.
2Loss of information
If data removal checks are performed on buffered data, then data freshness is improved, but computational overhead increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies partial action by performing data removal checks selectively - only on data items that are buffered and awaiting transmission. Rather than continuously monitoring all data or performing complex real-time analysis, the system checks expected arrival times for buffered items at appropriate intervals, balancing data freshness with computational efficiency.
3Productivity
If transmission queue size is increased, then transmission efficiency is improved, but memory usage increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary removal of stale data items from the transmission buffer before they consume excessive memory resources. By calculating expected arrival times and removing items that would arrive after their latest acceptable time, the system maintains an efficient buffer size that optimizes transmission efficiency without unnecessarily consuming memory capacity.
Data Source
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AI summary
Techniques for mitigating transmission of stale data from an implantable device are provided. In one embodiment, a method includes monitoring one or more data items stored in a data management queue prior to submission to a packet transmission queue for transmission as packets on a communication network to one or more other devices. The method also includes discarding a data item from the data management queue based on a determination that the data item has an expected arrival time to another device that is after a latest acceptable arrival time associated with the data item. The method also includes estimating a size of the packet transmission queue, and transmitting another data item from the data management queue to the packet transmission queue based on a determination that the size of the packet transmission queue has a defined relationship to the threshold size.