Residential Gateway Standby and Wake-Up Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Home gateways consume excessive energy when continuously powered on, and existing methods for reducing power consumption, such as low power modes, do not effectively manage standby and wake-up operations efficiently, leading to inefficiencies and user inconvenience.
Innovation Solution
A method for a home gateway to switch between nominal and low consumption modes by storing time slots for standby and wake-up periods, with random shifting of start and end times, and using a separate low-power microprocessor to manage power supply and detect activity or inactivity, allowing for optimized power usage and automatic mode transitions based on user actions or network conditions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the home gateway remains permanently switched on to receive telephone calls and maintain network access, then service availability is improved, but energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The gateway operates in periodic cycles, alternating between active mode (for receiving calls and providing service) and standby mode (for energy saving). The system uses scheduled wake-up times and activity-triggered activations to periodically return to active state, ensuring service availability while reducing overall energy consumption through these periodic operational cycles.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-scheduling wake-up times and maintaining minimal monitoring functions during standby mode. The gateway anticipates potential service needs by waking up at predetermined intervals or responding to pre-configured triggers, ensuring service availability is maintained without requiring continuous full-power operation.
2Use of energy by moving object
If the gateway is turned off to save energy, then energy consumption is reduced, but manual reactivation is required causing user inconvenience
Solution Approach 1:
The gateway automatically manages its own power state transitions without requiring user intervention. The system self-activates from standby mode through multiple mechanisms including scheduled wake-up times, detection of network activity, receipt of incoming calls, or user-triggered events, thereby maintaining energy savings while eliminating the need for manual reactivation and preserving user convenience.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback mechanisms by continuously monitoring for activity signals, incoming calls, or scheduled time events that trigger automatic wake-up from standby mode. This feedback loop ensures the gateway responds appropriately to service requirements while maintaining energy-efficient operation during idle periods, resolving the contradiction between energy savings and user convenience.
3Device complexity
If multiple gateways wake up at the same synchronized time, then power management is simplified, but network servers become overloaded
Solution Approach 1:
The system introduces asymmetry by adding random offsets to the otherwise synchronized wake-up times of multiple gateways. Each gateway maintains a base scheduled wake-up time but applies a unique random deviation, creating an asymmetric distribution of wake-up moments. This approach preserves the simplicity of scheduled power management while preventing simultaneous wake-up events that would overload network servers.
Solution Approach 2:
The wake-up time schedule becomes dynamic rather than static. While gateways maintain regular periodic wake-up cycles for power management efficiency, the actual wake-up moments are dynamically adjusted through random offsets that vary between gateways and potentially between cycles. This dynamic approach distributes load on network servers while maintaining overall power management simplicity.
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention relates to a method for placing in standby and waking up a residential gateway, characterised in that the gateway memorises a time slot and in that the gateway is placed in standby at the start of said time slot and woken up at the end of said time slot. The invention also relates to a residential gateway implementing said method.