Distributed Home Controller Failover with Message-Bus State Sharing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Smart home systems can experience faults that render certain functionalities ineffective until the fault is resolved, leading to disruptions in controlling connected devices.
Innovation Solution
A distributed communication system of home device controllers that utilize a message bus for state data publication and lease arbitration to dynamically manage connectivity and control among home devices, ensuring seamless operation even during fault conditions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a centralized smart home control system is used, then control functionality is provided, but the system becomes vulnerable to faults that render functionality ineffective
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the centralized control system into multiple distributed home device controllers, each capable of independently controlling specific home devices. This segmentation eliminates single points of failure, as faults in one controller do not affect others, thereby improving reliability while maintaining manageable complexity through modular architecture
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements dynamic controller selection and load balancing mechanisms that allow the system to adaptively respond to fault conditions. When faults are detected, the system dynamically reroutes control commands to healthy controllers, ensuring continuous functionality without requiring a completely static rigid architecture
2Reliability
If fault tolerance mechanisms are added to maintain functionality during faults, then reliability is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the operational parameters of the control system by implementing configurable fault detection thresholds, lease durations, and load balancing strategies. These parameter adjustments enable the system to achieve fault tolerance through software configuration rather than complex hardware redundancy, maintaining reliability while controlling architectural complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The distributed controllers implement self-diagnosis and self-healing capabilities through automated fault detection and lease-based resource management. Each controller independently monitors its own health status and automatically adjusts its operational state or transfers responsibilities to peer controllers without requiring complex external management systems
Data Source
AI summary
A home device controller can monitor published state data on a message bus of a distributed system of home device controllers, the published state data indicating current states of home devices connected to each home device controller of the distributed system. The home device controller can detect, from the message bus, a fault condition corresponding to a specified home device controller in the distributed system of home device controllers. Based on the fault condition and a set of acquisition rules, the home device controller acquires a home device in the local network of the specified home device controller in the distributed system. Based on the published state data on the message bus, the home device controller maintains a current state of the acquired home device.