IoT Gateway Failover Using Active-Inactive Data Buffering
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing failover mechanisms for gateways in IoT systems face issues such as security vulnerabilities, high network costs, and data loss due to infrequent health checks, particularly when applied in field networks without firewalls.
Innovation Solution
A failover mechanism for IoT gateways that involves an active and inactive gateway cluster, where both receive sensor data but only the active gateway transmits it, with the inactive gateway taking over upon failure, discarding any untransmitted data, and maintaining a small buffer of latest data.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If health check probes are sent frequently between gateways, then failure detection speed is improved, but network cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an appliance server as an intermediary that centralizes health check coordination. Instead of gateways directly probing each other (which incurs bidirectional network costs), the appliance server receives periodic health status reports from gateways and manages failover decisions. This reduces network overhead by consolidating communication through a single intermediary point that already exists in the system architecture.
2Reliability
If TCP/UDP ports are exposed for health check probes, then failure detection capability is improved, but security vulnerability increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the health check function from direct gateway-to-gateway communication and relocates it to the appliance server. The appliance server performs health status assessment by receiving reports from gateways without requiring gateways to expose TCP/UDP ports to each other. This separates the failure detection capability from the security risk by removing the direct communication channel that would require open ports.
3Loss of energy
If health check frequency is reduced, then network cost is reduced, but data loss increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary action by having the inactive gateway pre-load and buffer sensor data before failover occurs. When the active gateway becomes unhealthy, the inactive gateway already has recent data in its buffer, allowing it to immediately resume data transmission without waiting for the next health check cycle. This eliminates the data loss gap that would otherwise occur during failover detection while maintaining infrequent health check reporting to minimize network cost.
Data Source
AI summary
Aspects of the present disclosure involve systems and methods that involve providing a health status from each of a plurality of gateways, the plurality of gateways comprising an active gateway and one or more inactive gateways, the plurality of gateways receiving sensor data, wherein the active gateway transmits the received sensor data to a server; for a detection of a failure of the active gateway based on the health status, selecting an inactive gateway from the one or more inactive gateways to take over transmission of the active gateway; changing a status of the active gateway to inactive; identifying the sensor data received from the active gateway before the failure; and controlling the selected inactive gateway to discard the identified sensor data and resume transmission of the sensor data to the server.