Gateway Device Managing Multiple Electronic Tags
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing gateway devices for managing multiple electronic tags have complex system structures, high costs, and low data update rates, particularly affecting large-scale applications like supermarkets where efficient data updates are needed across numerous tags.
Innovation Solution
A gateway device with a network modem, communication chip, and microcontroller that receives and transmits updated data to multiple electronic tags, utilizing wireless communication protocols like Bluetooth Low Energy, and includes flash memory for data storage and feedback management, ensuring efficient data transmission and handling network connection failures.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If a gateway device uses a complicated system structure to manage multiple electronic tags, then it can handle more tags, but the cost increases and data update rate decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The gateway device segments the data update process into two distinct phases: a fast local update phase using communication chip that directly updates electronic tags without network involvement, and an asynchronous network synchronization phase that uploads data to the server only when needed. This segmentation allows the system to manage multiple tags efficiently without requiring complex coordinated updates across all tags simultaneously.
Solution Approach 2:
The gateway device performs preliminary data preparation and local storage in its memory before actual tag updates are needed. By pre-processing data and maintaining a local cache of tag information, the gateway can rapidly update multiple tags in sequence without waiting for network responses, thereby increasing the data update rate while managing a large quantity of tags.
2Productivity
If the gateway device transmits updated data to multiple electronic tags simultaneously over the network, then the data update rate increases, but network bandwidth is overwhelmed and data loss occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The data transmission process is segmented into local wireless transmission via communication chip and separate network upload operations. The gateway updates electronic tags through direct local communication without involving the network, ensuring reliable data delivery. Network transmission is used only for uploading to the server, decoupling the two transmission paths to prevent network congestion from affecting tag update reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The gateway device acts as an intermediary between the network and electronic tags, maintaining a local memory cache that serves as a buffer. This intermediary role allows the gateway to receive data from the server, store it locally, and then transmit to tags independently of network conditions, ensuring that tag updates are not compromised by network bandwidth limitations or congestion.
3Reliability
If the gateway device waits for network confirmation before updating electronic tags, then data consistency is maintained, but the data update rate decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The gateway device performs preliminary data reception and validation from the server before initiating tag updates. By pre-validating data integrity and maintaining a local cache of confirmed data, the gateway ensures data consistency is established beforehand, allowing subsequent tag updates to proceed rapidly without repeated consistency checks during the update process.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback mechanisms where electronic tags send acknowledgment signals back to the gateway after successful updates. This feedback allows the gateway to confirm data consistency with individual tags without blocking the overall update process, enabling continuous operation at high speed while maintaining reliability through selective verification.
4Device complexity
If the gateway device uses simple transmission protocol, then the device complexity decreases, but the ability to handle network connection failures and ensure data completeness worsens
Solution Approach 1:
The gateway device implements beforehand cushioning by maintaining a local memory cache that stores backup copies of tag data and update information. This local storage acts as a cushion against network failures, allowing the gateway to retrieve and re-transmit data if network connections fail, ensuring data completeness without requiring complex real-time error correction protocols during transmission.
Data Source
AI summary
The present application discloses a gateway device for managing multiple electronic tags. The gateway device includes a network modem configured to receive updated data for multiple electronic tags. Additionally, the gateway device includes a communication chip configured to transmit individual updated data for each individual electronic tag one by one to the corresponding individual electronic tag of the multiple electronic tags. Moreover, the gateway device includes a microcontroller coupled with the network modem and the communication chip to control receiving the updated data for the multiple electronic tags from the network modem and transmitting multiple individual updated data respectively to the multiple electronic tags.