Dataflow Hierarchy Protocol for Low-Latency AR Pathway Selection
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current network protocols, such as UDP, exhibit high latency, which is detrimental to augmented reality (AR) applications like parallel-reality games, causing delays and frustrating user experiences due to the mismatch between the actual and perceived positions of AR objects in real-time environments.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a dataflow hierarchy protocol that optimizes network pathways for low-latency communication by sampling various pathways, including direct connections and intermediary nodes like game servers and cell towers, to determine the pathway with minimal latency for data transmission, thereby reducing latency to less than 5 milliseconds.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of time
If existing connectionless communication protocols like UDP are used, then overhead is reduced and latency is lowered compared to connection-oriented protocols, but latency remains approximately 100 milliseconds or more which is insufficient for AR applications requiring latency an order of magnitude lower
Solution Approach 1:
The communication protocol is segmented into multiple layers including a transport layer implementing reliable data transfer and a session layer managing communication sessions. This segmentation allows the system to achieve both low latency and reliability by handling different functions at appropriate protocol layers, with the transport layer ensuring delivery guarantees while maintaining efficient data transmission
Solution Approach 2:
A protocol translator component acts as an intermediary between connectionless protocols (UDP) and connection-oriented protocols (TCP), enabling the system to leverage the low latency of UDP while providing the reliability guarantees of TCP through translation and adaptation layers that manage data delivery without requiring full connection establishment overhead
2Loss of time
If server maintains master state and periodically synchronizes client local state via network, then centralized control is achieved, but synchronization takes significant time (approximately 100 milliseconds) which is detrimental to gaming experience
Solution Approach 1:
The protocol performs preliminary actions by pre-establishing communication pathways and pre-synchronizing critical state information before gameplay begins. This allows the system to reduce actual gameplay synchronization time significantly, as the foundation for rapid state updates is already in place through preliminary setup phases
Solution Approach 2:
The synchronization mechanism transitions from traditional periodic full-state synchronization to a multi-dimensional approach that synchronizes only changed state elements asynchronously. This dimensional change in the synchronization strategy reduces time requirements by focusing computational resources on updating only the specific state variables that have changed rather than performing complete periodic synchronization
3Adaptability or versatility
If more than one user participates in the parallel-reality game, then interactivity increases, but latency causes noticeable delay between actions of one player showing up in other players' views and mismatch compounds as number of players increases
Solution Approach 1:
The network communication is segmented into dedicated channels for different types of data (position updates, action commands, state synchronization). This segmentation allows critical gameplay actions to be transmitted through optimized low-latency channels while less time-sensitive data uses standard channels, maintaining responsive multi-player interaction even as player count increases
Solution Approach 2:
The protocol dynamically changes transmission parameters such as packet size, update frequency, and compression level based on the number of active players and current network conditions. This adaptive parameter adjustment ensures that as more players join, the system optimizes bandwidth utilization and maintains acceptable latency by adjusting data transmission characteristics in real-time
Data Source
AI summary
A dataflow hierarchy protocol is implemented by one or more devices to optimize how the one or more devices process datagrams for network communications. The dataflow hierarchy considers various available network pathways for dataflow. A device implementing the dataflow hierarchy selects one or more of the available network pathways to provide low latency in data communication with other devices. The device may sample various available network pathways to determine pathway metrics (e.g., latency) and select one or more network pathways based on the metrics. The available network pathways can include pathways through one or more intermediary nodes, such as pathways through a game server, pathways through a cell tower, and pathways through a network.