Field Area Router Backhaul Failure Mobile Relay
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Solution Overview
Problem
Field area routers (FARs) in field area networks often experience unreliable backhaul links, leading to temporary or permanent disconnections, which hinder the transmission of critical messages to destinations outside the network.
Innovation Solution
A method where a disconnected FAR uses a traveling mobile device to send messages to a remote connected FAR via a mobile device, with acknowledgment mechanisms to prevent duplicate transmissions and ensure reliable delivery, utilizing timer settings to manage message retries.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a disconnected FAR uses multiple traveling mobile devices to send messages, then message delivery reliability improves, but network traffic overhead and duplicate message risk increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements an acknowledgment mechanism where the destination sends acknowledgments back to the disconnected FAR through mobile devices. When the FAR receives an acknowledgment, it stops sending duplicate messages. This feedback loop ensures reliable delivery while preventing excessive traffic overhead from redundant transmissions.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses traveling mobile devices as intermediaries to carry messages from the disconnected FAR to the destination and to deliver acknowledgments back. These mobile devices act as mediators that enable communication when the backhaul link is disconnected, resolving the contradiction by providing alternative transmission paths without requiring the FAR to maintain multiple simultaneous connections.
2Reliability
If a disconnected FAR sends messages to multiple mobile devices, then message delivery reliability improves, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The acknowledgment mechanism provides feedback to the disconnected FAR about which messages have been successfully delivered. This allows the FAR to simplify its message management by stopping transmissions once confirmation is received, reducing the complexity of tracking multiple message states across different mobile devices.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates copies of messages to send to multiple mobile devices when the backhaul is disconnected. Each copy is independently tracked, and the acknowledgment mechanism allows the system to manage these copies efficiently by stopping replication once delivery is confirmed, thereby managing device complexity while maintaining reliability.
3Reliability
If timer settings are used to manage message retries, then message delivery reliability improves, but loss of time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses periodic timer-based retry mechanisms where the disconnected FAR attempts to send messages at regular intervals if acknowledgments are not received. This periodic action balances reliability improvement through retries with time loss management by preventing continuous, unnecessary transmission attempts.
Solution Approach 2:
The acknowledgment-based feedback system allows the timer mechanism to be efficient - when acknowledgments are received promptly, the timer stops and no additional delay occurs. The timer only causes time loss when messages need to be retransmitted due to lack of acknowledgment, thus improving reliability while minimizing unnecessary time delays.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3~3A
AI summary
In one embodiment, a first stationary router (300) may detect a disconnected backhaul link (305) to a destination (310). In response to detecting the disconnected backhaul link (305), the first stationary router (300) may send a message (315) to a first traveling mobile device (320), to cause the message (315) to be sent toward the destination (310) via a second stationary router (410). The second stationary router (410) may receive the message (315) from the first traveling mobile device (320), and in response to forwarding the message (315) to the destination (310) over its connected backhaul link (405), may send an acknowledgment toward the first stationary router (300) via a second traveling mobile device. The first stationary router (300) may then, in response to receiving the acknowledgment, cease sending copies of the message to other traveling mobile devices.