Intelligent Lighting Distributed Processing Resource Sharing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Networked lighting systems often have idle processing and memory resources due to extended periods of inactivity or underutilization, leading to substantial financial investment with limited resource utilization.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a system that allows for the sharing of processor and memory resources among intelligent lighting devices for distributed processing tasks when resources are available, utilizing a resource manager to allocate tasks and manage resource availability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If lighting devices are equipped with sophisticated electronics including processors and memory for networking and control functions, then the control and networking capabilities are improved, but the cost of each device increases substantially
Solution Approach 1:
The patent enables lighting devices to serve multiple functions: their processors and memory are used both for lighting control operations and for providing distributed processing resources to other devices on the network. This multi-functionality allows the same hardware to reduce overall system costs by sharing processing capabilities across multiple applications.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent combines the processing resources of multiple lighting devices into a shared pool that can be allocated to various tasks. By merging idle processing cycles and memory capacity from numerous devices, the system creates a collective computing resource that reduces the need for dedicated expensive processing units in each individual device.
2Reliability
If lighting devices operate independently with local processing, then the responsiveness and reliability are improved, but the utilization of processing resources decreases during idle periods
Solution Approach 1:
The patent ensures that processing resources continue to be useful even when not needed for local lighting control. By enabling devices to contribute their idle processing power to network-wide tasks, the system maintains continuous productive use of computational resources, transforming otherwise wasted idle cycles into valuable distributed processing capacity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system allows lighting devices to automatically participate in resource sharing without requiring constant human intervention or complex centralized management. Devices self-manage their resource allocation, dynamically contributing available processing power to the network pool while maintaining their primary lighting functions.
3Ease of operation
If a central control system manages all lighting devices, then the system coordination is improved, but the network complexity and communication overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the control architecture by enabling individual lighting devices to autonomously manage their own processing resources and participate in distributed task execution. This segmentation reduces the burden on central control systems, distributing intelligence and decision-making across the network to simplify overall system coordination while reducing communication overhead.
Data Source
AI summary
A system of network-connected lighting devices also offers a distributed processing function that utilizes processor and/or memory resources if/when available in some or all of the lighting devices. In the examples, a resource manager receives a job for distributed processing using shared available resources. The resource manager identifies lighting devices having resources of the processors and/or the memories available for the distributed processing function. The resource manager distributes tasks and/or data of the received job through a communications network to identified lighting devices, for distributed processing. The resource manager also receives results of distributed processing for the received job, from the identified lighting devices through the communications network. The received results are processed to produce a composite result for a response to the received job.