Packet Prioritization in Industrial Wireless Networks
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Solution Overview
Problem
Industrial wireless networks face inefficiencies due to old packets remaining in the system, which can be useless or harmful, and consume resources, leading to inefficient use of system resources and increased latency.
Innovation Solution
A method and device for prioritizing packet transmission in industrial wireless networks by determining the remaining lifetime of packets based on time needed to reach a destination node, with prioritization in ascending order from low to high remaining lifetime, ensuring critical packets with strict latency requirements are transmitted first.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of time
If packets are transmitted in FIFO order without prioritization, then transmission simplicity is maintained, but critical packets with strict latency requirements suffer from delayed transmission and increased latency
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies parameter changes by introducing a time-to-live (TTL) parameter that dynamically changes as packets traverse the network. Each node examines the TTL value and prioritizes packets with lower TTL values, ensuring that critical packets with tight latency constraints are transmitted before less time-sensitive packets. This parameter-based prioritization resolves the contradiction by automatically managing transmission timing without complex scheduling algorithms.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements preliminary action by pre-calculating and embedding the TTL value in each packet at the source node before transmission. This preliminary assignment of lifetime indications allows intermediate nodes to make prioritization decisions based on pre-computed values, eliminating the need for complex real-time scheduling and reducing transmission latency for critical packets.
2Productivity
If old packets remain in the system waiting for transmission, then buffer resources are occupied, but system resources are not used efficiently and useful data waits as useless data is transmitted
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies discarding and recovering by systematically discarding packets that have exceeded their TTL value at intermediate nodes. When a node encounters a packet with TTL ≤ 0, it discards the packet and typically sends a notification to the source. This prevents old, useless packets from occupying buffer resources indefinitely, allowing the network to recover buffer space for transmitting more useful, time-sensitive data, thereby improving overall network productivity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements feedback mechanisms where intermediate nodes examine the TTL value of each incoming packet and adjust transmission prioritization based on this information. This feedback loop ensures that packets are dynamically prioritized according to their remaining lifetime, preventing buffer saturation with old packets and improving resource utilization by transmitting high-priority packets first.
3Adaptability or versatility
If multiple applications communicate over the same wireless sensor network, then network versatility is improved, but packet prioritization becomes complex to meet different latency requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent resolves the complexity of multi-application prioritization by using parameter changes - specifically, by encoding application-specific latency requirements into the TTL parameter of each packet. Different applications can have different TTL values assigned by their source nodes, allowing the same network infrastructure to handle diverse traffic types with varying latency constraints through simple TTL-based prioritization logic at intermediate nodes.
Data Source
AI summary
A wireless communication device providing a node in the network includes a wireless transmitter, a wireless receiver, a transmission buffer, and a packet prioritizing unit configured to obtain data relating to packets to be transmitted in the network, obtain indications of the remaining lifetime of the packets, where the indications are based on the time needed for reaching a destination node, prioritize the packets according to the remaining life time indications, where the prioritization is made in ascending order from an indication of a low remaining life time to a high remaining lifetime, and place the packets in the transmission buffer for transmission according to the prioritization.