Timeline-Based Network Configuration for Flexible Design Changes
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Solution Overview
Problem
The iterative network design process is complex, lacks transparency, and is inflexible, leading to high effort and error-prone changes, especially when altering fundamental functionalities.
Innovation Solution
A chronological approach is adopted where configuration steps are arranged sequentially on a timeline, allowing for flexible reordering, insertion, deletion, and repair of steps, enhancing transparency and enabling efficient recalculations and optimizations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If configuration steps are applied iteratively to achieve the desired network configuration, then the network design flexibility is improved, but the complexity of managing configuration steps and their order increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the network configuration process into discrete, parameterizable configuration steps that can be independently managed. Each step represents a specific configuration action that can be modified, reordered, or removed without affecting the entire configuration process, thereby reducing management complexity while maintaining flexibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements a dynamic configuration approach where the sequence and parameters of configuration steps can be adjusted at any time. The system allows retrospective modification of any step's parameters and reordering of steps along the time axis, enabling adaptive network design without rigid constraints.
2Adaptability or versatility
If fundamental functionalities are altered in the network configuration, then the network adaptability is improved, but the effort and error risk increase due to cascading changes
Solution Approach 1:
The patent stores the complete sequence of configuration steps as historical data before final deployment. This preliminary documentation of the configuration path enables retrospective analysis and modification, allowing fundamental changes to be made with automatic recalculation of affected steps, thereby reducing the effort and error risk associated with cascading changes.
Solution Approach 2:
The system provides feedback mechanisms that automatically recalculate and adjust subsequent configuration steps when fundamental changes are made. This feedback loop identifies and manages cascading changes systematically, reducing manual effort and error risk while maintaining network adaptability.
3Device complexity
If the final configuration result is stored without documenting the configuration steps, then the storage simplicity is improved, but the transparency and traceability of the design process are lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a digital copy of the entire configuration process as chronological step data, separate from the final configuration result. This copy preserves all design decisions, parameters, and sequences without adding significant storage complexity, enabling full transparency and traceability of the network design process.
4Stability of the object's composition
If configuration steps are fixed in their original sequence, then the configuration stability is improved, but the flexibility to optimize and reanalyze intermediate configurations is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a dynamic configuration model where steps are stored with their original sequence but can be freely reordered and modified. The system maintains stability by preserving the historical sequence for reference while enabling flexibility through dynamic reordering and recalculation, allowing optimization and reanalysis at any point in the configuration process.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for configuring and subsequently operating a network in which at least two network devices are connected to one another via data connections may include a chronological sequence of parameterizable configuration steps is performed in a sequence carried out by a user, wherein these steps are stored sequentially on a timeline so that their presence and sequence on the timeline provides the necessary transparency in order to subsequently understand the intention and procedure of the configuration, in particular, of a network design.