Network Device Event Coordination via Clustered Leadership
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing network environments face challenges in efficiently managing and coordinating event and state information across multiple devices, leading to inefficiencies in data communication and processing tasks.
Innovation Solution
The proposed solution involves a method where a first user device in a network identifies connections with other devices, determines its leadership role, and receives state and event information from other devices. It then persists and reports this information to other devices in the network, identifying observers configured to perform actions based on detected events.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If devices in a network environment are separated into clusters with assigned leaders to manage automated environments, then device coordination and management capability is improved, but device complexity and communication overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
The network is divided into multiple clusters, each managed by a leader device. This segmentation allows distributed management where each cluster operates semi-independently, reducing the coordination burden on any single device while maintaining overall network coherence. The segmentation principle directly addresses the contradiction by organizing complexity into manageable units.
Solution Approach 2:
Leader devices serve as intermediaries between member devices and the central coordination system. Each leader aggregates information from its cluster members and communicates with other leaders, reducing direct communication overhead between all devices. This intermediary layer simplifies the network structure while enabling coordinated management across the entire network.
2Productivity
If event and state information is shared across all devices in the network, then event response capability is improved, but data communication latency increases
Solution Approach 1:
Event and state information propagation is segmented by cluster boundaries. When an event occurs in one cluster, only the local leader and relevant observers within that cluster are immediately notified. This localized information sharing reduces communication latency compared to broadcasting to all devices, while still maintaining effective event response capability within each cluster.
Solution Approach 2:
Different parts of the network receive information at different times based on their relevance. Devices in the same cluster as the event source receive information immediately, while devices in other clusters receive it later through inter-cluster leader communication. This local quality approach optimizes response times for relevant devices without requiring universal simultaneous notification.
3Extent of automation
If multiple observers are registered across devices to perform actions on events, then system automation level is improved, but device complexity and observer coordination overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
Leader devices act as intermediaries for observer management within each cluster. Instead of each device independently managing observers across the entire network, local leaders coordinate observer registrations and event notifications within their clusters. This reduces the coordination overhead for each individual device while maintaining high automation through distributed observer execution.
Solution Approach 2:
Observer management is segmented by cluster boundaries. Each cluster maintains its own set of observers registered with the local leader, independent of other clusters. This segmentation reduces the complexity of global observer coordination while enabling automated responses within each cluster through locally-managed observers.
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques are disclosed for coordinating state information between devices in a network of devices. In one example, a first user device can obtain event information identifying an event (e.g., triggering of an alarm) associated with another user device and state information identifying a state of the other device. The first user device can report the state and event information to devices in the network. Observers corresponding to each user device can identify the occurrence of the event corresponding to the event information for each user device. An action (e.g., output an audio chime) can be performed by each device with an observer that identifies the occurrence of the event corresponding to the event information for each user device.