DeAMON Scheduling Protocol for Industrial Wireless Mesh Networks
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current wireless technologies face limitations in achieving low latency and high reliability for closed-loop control applications in industrial automation, particularly in mesh-topology environments, due to constraints in latency, reliability, and scalability, which are essential for process automation requiring 20-30 ms cycle time and 99.999% packet delivery ratio.
Innovation Solution
The proposed solution involves a decentralized adaptive multi-hop scheduling protocol called DeAMON, which builds a sequential schedule, allows parallel transmissions, and optimally overprovisions slots for MAC layer retransmissions, ensuring efficient resource utilization and adaptability to topology changes, and a novel wireless solution called ENCLOSE for star-topology environments using network coding and adaptive frequency hopping to achieve ultra-high reliability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If wireless technologies are used for closed-loop control applications, then cost is reduced compared to wired solutions, but latency and reliability are insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary scheduling of transmission timeslots before actual data transmission. The base station determines and assigns specific timeslots for uplink and downlink transmissions in advance, ensuring that wireless resources are pre-allocated to avoid conflicts and guarantee reliable delivery within the required 20-30ms cycle time for closed-loop control applications.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent establishes a feedback mechanism where the base station monitors transmission success and sends retransmission requests when packets are lost. The system tracks packet delivery ratios and adjusts scheduling decisions based on observed performance, enabling the network to maintain 99.999% reliability through adaptive retransmission strategies.
2Ease of manufacture
If wireless technologies are used for closed-loop control applications, then cost is reduced compared to wired solutions, but latency is too high
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary scheduling of transmission timeslots before actual data transmission. The base station determines and assigns specific timeslots for uplink and downlink transmissions in advance, ensuring that wireless resources are pre-allocated to avoid conflicts and guarantee reliable delivery within the required 20-30ms cycle time for closed-loop control applications.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs periodic transmission scheduling where the base station allocates recurring timeslots for control messages at regular intervals. This periodic structure ensures predictable latency by guaranteeing that control communications occur at known, regular time points, meeting the deterministic timing requirements of industrial automation systems.
3Adaptability or versatility
If wireless mesh network is used to support up to 100-150 devices, then scalability is improved, but complexity of scheduling and coordination increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the wireless network into a hierarchical structure with a centralized base station and multiple slave devices. The base station acts as a coordination point that manages scheduling for all devices, breaking down the complex multi-device coordination problem into manageable one-to-many relationships. This segmentation enables the network to scale to 100-150 devices while keeping individual scheduling decisions relatively simple.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a base station as an intermediary that centralizes scheduling and coordination functions. Rather than requiring direct coordination between all pairs of devices, the base station mediates all communications, assigning timeslots and managing resource allocation. This intermediary approach dramatically reduces scheduling complexity while maintaining network scalability.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and devices are provided for assisting bidirectional communication within a wireless network, the wireless network comprising a central node and a plurality of outer nodes within wireless communication range of the central node, the method comprising a first outer node: listening for a downlink communication from the central node to a second outer node and an uplink response from the second outer node to the central node; determining whether the downlink communication or the uplink response has failed to be received by its intended recipient; in response to a determination that the downlink communication or the uplink response has failed to be received by its intended recipient, determining whether the first outer node should transmit the failed communication to the intended recipient; and, in response to a determination that the first outer node should transmit the failed communication to the intended recipient, transmitting the failed communication to the intended recipient.