Hierarchical Medical Device Data Transmission Network
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Solution Overview
Problem
In hospitals and clinics, data transmission networks often become overloaded, leading to interruptions and loss of data during real-time communication between medical appliances and central servers, as all devices access a common network, causing latency and data loss.
Innovation Solution
A multi-stage data transmission system where medical appliances are grouped and connected to communication devices via a first network, which then communicate directly with a central server through a second network, allowing for independent data storage and transmission, reducing network overload and ensuring continuous, trouble-free data transfer.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If all medical appliances access a common network for data transmission, then data communication between medical appliances and server is enabled, but network overload occurs leading to data transmission interruptions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the network architecture into multiple hierarchical levels: medical appliances are grouped into device groups, each with a local communication device as gateway; communication devices form a second level network; and a central server operates at the top level. This segmentation distributes data transmission loads across multiple pathways, preventing single-point overload and maintaining transmission reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
Communication devices serve as intermediary gateways between medical appliances and the central server. These intermediaries buffer, aggregate, and manage data traffic, reducing direct load on the central server and preventing network overload by distributing communication responsibilities across multiple intermediate nodes.
2Reliability
If large intermediate memories are provided in medical appliances to store data temporarily, then data loss during network overload is prevented, but device complexity and data retrieval time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges storage functionality into the communication devices and central server rather than requiring large intermediate memories in each medical appliance. The communication device aggregates data from multiple appliances and stores it temporarily before transmission, while the server provides centralized storage. This distributes the storage burden and reduces complexity at the appliance level.
3Speed
If a direct common network connection is used between medical appliances and server, then data transmission speed is improved, but network overload and data loss occur
Solution Approach 1:
The network is segmented into hierarchical levels with dedicated communication channels at each level. Medical appliances connect to communication devices via first-level networks, which aggregate and transmit to the server via second-level networks. This segmentation maintains transmission speed by providing dedicated pathways while preventing overload through distributed traffic management.
Solution Approach 2:
Communication devices perform preliminary data aggregation, validation, and buffering before transmitting to the server. This preliminary processing reduces the volume and complexity of data reaching the server, maintaining transmission speed while preventing overload conditions that would cause interruptions.
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to a system for controlling a data transmission to and/or from a plurality of medical devices, said plurality of medical devices being divided into individual groups, each of which comprises at least one medical device. Each group of medical devices on a first data transmission level is directly connected via a respective first network to a communication device for transmitting, storing, and controlling data, said communication device being on a second transmission level, and a plurality of said communication devices exchange data with a common central server device for storing, controlling, and data transmission, said server device being on a third data transmission level.