Redundant Voting System for Communication Reliability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional communication systems with centralized voting processors have a single point of failure, leading to potential disruptions in determining best quality data and communication processing due to prime site, network connection, or voting processor failures.
Innovation Solution
A redundant voting system is implemented where active and backup voting processors communicate through group addresses, allowing the backup to take over and ensure continuous data processing, with infrastructure assistance to eliminate duplicate messages and maintain system reliability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a single centralized voting processor is used to process incoming data from multiple sub sites, then the system structure is simplified and ease of operation is improved, but the reliability deteriorates due to single point of failure
Solution Approach 1:
The single centralized voting processor is segmented into multiple distributed voting processors located at different prime sites. Each voting processor independently processes data from sub sites, eliminating the single point of failure while maintaining operational simplicity through standardized processing functions across multiple units.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the parameter of voting processor quantity from one to multiple, and changes the architectural parameter from centralized to distributed. This transformation maintains ease of operation through standardized protocols while dramatically improving reliability by removing the single point of failure.
2Reliability
If redundant voting processors are implemented to eliminate single point of failure, then reliability is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple voting processors are implemented with identical universal functions and standardized interfaces. Each processor can independently perform the same data processing tasks, allowing redundant processors to be added without increasing operational complexity, as they all follow the same protocols and procedures.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses identical copies of the voting processor design across multiple prime sites. This copying approach ensures that each redundant processor has the same capabilities and interface standards, reducing the complexity of managing multiple different systems while maintaining high reliability through redundancy.
3Reliability
If multiple prime sites with voting processors are distributed across the network, then reliability is improved through redundancy, but network complexity and communication overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
All voting processors across distributed prime sites are placed on equal footing with standardized interfaces and protocols. This equipotential approach simplifies network communication by ensuring all nodes operate at the same level with compatible communication standards, reducing network complexity despite the distributed architecture.
Solution Approach 2:
The system merges the functions of multiple distributed voting processors through standardized group addresses and unified data processing protocols. This combining approach allows redundant processors to work together seamlessly, reducing the apparent network complexity by presenting a unified interface despite the distributed physical architecture.
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed are methods and systems for providing improved reliability via redundant voting systems. The voting systems are operable to vote on a signal received by a plurality of base stations in a communication system. A first voting processor transmits a message to the plurality of base stations indicating a return base station to voting processor (BS-VP) multicast address. A plurality of multicast messages addressed to the return multicast address are then received from the plurality of base stations and associated with a particular signal received from a signal source by each of the plurality of base stations. The first voting processor determines a recovered signal, and responsive to the first voting processor determining that the second voting processor is no longer operational, transmits the recovered signal to a voting processor to infrastructure (VP-IN) multicast address associated with an infrastructure device and the first and second voting processors.