Self-Checking Pair Braided Ring Network Architecture
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Solution Overview
Problem
Distributed, fault-tolerant communication systems in safety-critical applications, such as aerospace, face challenges with single points of failure in centralized bus guardians, which can lead to increased costs and reduced reliability.
Innovation Solution
A network architecture with self-checking pairs of nodes that communicate over two rings, where each node relays data with integrity information and selects instances based on received data from both channels, enhancing fault tolerance and reducing the need for multiple independent bus guardians.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a centralized bus guardian is used in each channel, then fault tolerance is improved, but device complexity and cost increase due to single points of failure
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the bus guardian functionality from multiple centralized guardians into a single shared bus guardian that serves multiple channels. This is achieved by having nodes form self-checking pairs that share a common bus guardian resource, thereby reducing the total number of bus guardians from multiple independent instances to a single shared instance while maintaining fault tolerance through the paired node architecture
Solution Approach 2:
The shared bus guardian is designed to perform multiple functions across different channels simultaneously. It monitors and manages fault tolerance for multiple communication channels through the self-checking pairs, making a single bus guardian instance universal in its ability to protect multiple channels rather than requiring dedicated guardians for each channel
2Reliability
If multiple independent bus guardians are provided within each node, then fault tolerance is improved, but cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple bus guardian instances into a single shared resource that is accessed by self-checking pairs of nodes. Instead of each node having multiple independent bus guardians, the system uses one shared bus guardian that is collectively managed by pairs of nodes, thereby reducing the quantity of bus guardian instances from multiple per node to a single shared instance across the network
3Ease of operation
If centralized bus guardians are used, then communication management is simplified, but reliability decreases due to single points of failure
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the single point of failure risk by distributing bus guardian functionality across self-checking pairs of nodes. Each pair shares a bus guardian instance, and the pairing mechanism ensures that if one node fails, the other node in the pair can continue to access the bus guardian resource, thereby segmenting the reliability risk while maintaining centralized management benefits
Data Source
AI summary
In one embodiment, one or more self checking pairs are implemented at the application layer in a network that supports the qualified propagation of data at the transport layer (for example, in a network having a braided ring topology).