Reconfigurable Embedded Rules Engine for IoT Interoperability
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing IoT devices face challenges with interoperability and uniform communication due to disparate computing frameworks and resource constraints, limiting their ability to communicate effectively across different platforms.
Innovation Solution
A reconfigurable embedded rules engine with a minimized code base that provides cross-platform network communications functionality, allowing for protocol-agnostic communications and enabling resource-constrained devices to function as a secure single control point, while optimizing memory and processing efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a universal communication protocol is implemented across diverse IoT devices, then interoperability is improved, but device complexity increases due to resource constraints
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a gateway device as an intermediary that translates between different communication protocols and a universal internal protocol. The gateway receives messages from devices using various protocols (WiFi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, etc.), converts them to a standardized internal format, and routes them appropriately. This mediator approach enables interoperability without requiring each constrained device to implement complex universal protocol stacks, thus resolving the contradiction between adaptability and device complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system segments the communication protocol implementation into two parts: simple protocol-specific message formats at the device level, and complex protocol translation and routing logic at the gateway level. This segmentation allows resource-constrained devices to maintain simple communication stacks while still achieving universal interoperability through the gateway's segmentation of computational responsibilities.
2Adaptability or versatility
If resource-constrained devices implement full network communication functionality, then communication capability is improved, but processing efficiency deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts complex communication protocol processing and message routing functionality from resource-constrained devices and relocates it to a more powerful gateway server. Devices only need to implement simple message sending and receiving capabilities, while the gateway handles the computationally intensive tasks of protocol translation, message validation, and routing. This extraction improves processing efficiency on constrained devices while maintaining full communication capability through the gateway.
3Quantity of substance
If a minimized code base is used to reduce memory footprint, then memory efficiency is improved, but adaptability deteriorates due to limited configuration flexibility
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements local quality by providing different configuration approaches for different scenarios: a minimized code base with essential functionality for highly constrained devices, and extended configuration options available through the gateway for devices with more resources. The system allows each device to operate with its appropriate level of configuration complexity, optimizing memory usage where needed while maintaining adaptability where resources permit.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and apparatus including consumer electronic devices, including Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity and a reconfigurable embedded rules engine, include: a code base that has been minimized to reduce a memory footprint of the code base in a memory device; and wherein the code base performs operations comprising effecting cross-platform network communications functionality using a computer communications network interface, providing access to the cross-platform network communications functionality through a communications application programming interface (API), triggering network communications, using the communications API, in accordance with encoded device-operation rules comprising at least one encoded communication triggering rule, allowing changes to the encoded device-operation rules through a rules updating API, and checking whether the changes to the encoded device-operation rules received through the rules updating API comply with at least one of the processing resource constraints associated with a hardware processor and a memory device.