Monitoring System Channel Migration for Workload Distribution
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing monitoring systems for secure environments, such as airports and prisons, face limitations in runtime availability and workload distribution, leading to potential system failures and increased manpower requirements due to uneven workload distribution and driver-related issues.
Innovation Solution
A monitoring system with a network of computers and drivers, where channels are assigned a predefined priority order, allowing them to migrate across computers, ensuring that workload is evenly distributed and the system remains operational even if one computer becomes inactive, with storage and output mechanisms to maintain device states and trigger responses.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If a single server is used to manage all monitoring channels, then the system structure is simple, but the runtime availability decreases when the server fails
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the server functionality across multiple computer nodes. Each node can independently host monitoring channels, and the system divides the workload across multiple machines rather than relying on a single centralized server. This segmentation ensures that if one node fails, others continue to operate, maintaining runtime availability while keeping the overall structure manageable.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the operational parameter of server availability by implementing dynamic server migration. When a server becomes unavailable, the system automatically migrates channels to alternative servers, changing the state from static single-server operation to dynamic multi-server operation. This parameter change resolves the contradiction by maintaining simplicity through automation while improving reliability through redundancy.
2Reliability
If all channels are transferred to a single backup server when the primary server fails, then the system maintains operation, but the workload becomes uneven and performance degrades
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments channels into multiple groups that can be distributed across different backup servers rather than consolidating all channels on a single backup server. This segmentation of the workload ensures that each backup server handles a manageable portion of the total channels, maintaining both reliability and productivity by preventing any single server from becoming a bottleneck.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements dynamic workload distribution where channels can migrate between servers based on current capacity and performance metrics. Rather than statically assigning all channels to one backup server, the system dynamically balances the load across multiple available servers, adjusting in real-time to maintain optimal productivity while ensuring continuous operation.
3Adaptability or versatility
If multiple drivers are used to support diverse monitoring devices, then the system versatility increases, but the risk of runtime exceptions increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments drivers into isolated modules, each responsible for specific device types. This segmentation allows the system to support diverse monitoring devices through multiple specialized drivers while containing potential runtime exceptions within individual driver modules. If one driver encounters an error, it does not necessarily bring down the entire system, as other driver modules continue to operate independently.
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces an intermediary layer between the diverse monitoring devices and the core system. This intermediary layer provides standardized interfaces and abstraction, allowing multiple drivers to communicate through a common protocol. The intermediary mediates between device-specific variations and system requirements, reducing the propagation of runtime exceptions while maintaining versatility in device support.
Data Source
AI summary
A monitoring system comprising a plurality of computers (PC1, PC2) in a network, a plurality of monitoring devices (2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 12) and a plurality of drivers (GDS) configured for the monitoring devices (2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 12), each driver (GDS) communicating with the network through a designated channel, each channel configured to be run on any of a plurality of the computers (PC1, PC2) in the network, wherein there is assigned to each channel a predefined order of priority in which an active computer (PC1, PC2) of the network is selected for running the channel and wherein the order of priority assigned to each channel varies between channels and wherein, in use, when the highest priority available computer (PC1, PC2) for any given channel is inactive, the given channel switches to the next highest priority available computer (PC1, PC2) which is active.