EDP System Integration via Global Time and Validity Fields
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Solution Overview
Problem
Integrating autonomous IT systems into a System of Systems (SoS) is challenging due to uncoordinated evolution, leading to potential inconsistencies in service provision, as changes in individual systems can occur between service checks and calls, resulting in incorrect responses.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a common interface with validity time fields to ensure that service specifications and information remain unchanged, and using a global time synchronized with TAI for all systems, along with a timeout field to manage processing time, allowing service requesting systems to check service validity and detect failures promptly.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If autonomous EDP systems are integrated into an SoS with dynamic service changes, then adaptability and service flexibility are improved, but system consistency and reliability deteriorate due to uncoordinated evolution
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by establishing a global time reference and validity time fields before service changes occur. The SPS sets a validity time field in the interface specification indicating when changes will occur, allowing the SRS to plan service usage within the valid period. This preemptive timing mechanism prevents inconsistency without restricting future adaptability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements feedback by having the SRS check the validity time field before using services and monitoring whether the current time exceeds the validity period. This feedback loop enables the SRS to detect service changes and switch to alternative services, maintaining system consistency while preserving service flexibility through informed decision-making.
2Adaptability or versatility
If service specifications are changed dynamically in SPS, then service adaptability is improved, but response correctness deteriorates due to changes between service check and call
Solution Approach 1:
The SPS performs preliminary action by setting the validity time field in advance to indicate when service changes will occur. This allows the SRS to check service availability within the valid period and complete service calls before the validity expires, ensuring response correctness while maintaining service adaptability.
Solution Approach 2:
The validity time field acts as an intermediary between the SPS and SRS, providing a clear temporal boundary that mediates the service usage. The SRS uses this intermediary information to determine whether to proceed with service calls, ensuring that services are invoked only when specifications are guaranteed to be correct.
3Reliability
If global time synchronization is implemented across all EDP systems, then system consistency is improved, but system complexity increases due to time coordination requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies universality by implementing a single global time reference that serves multiple functions: synchronizing service validity checks, coordinating service changes across all SPS and SRS, and providing a common temporal framework for the entire SoS. This universal time mechanism achieves system consistency without requiring separate coordination systems for each function.
Data Source
Figure 1~2
AI summary
The invention relates to a method for statically or dynamically integrating a quantity of EDP systems into a system-of-systems (SoS), in which according to the invention all EDP systems participating in the SoS have a global time with precision P, wherein a service providing system ("SPS") (151) in an interface specifying the service manages a validity time field that specifies the future validity time up to which the syntax and semantics of an interface specification and the information contained therein will be valid, and wherein the SPS (151) ensures that before said validity time no changes in the interface specification and to the information contained therein will be made.