Synchronous Data Communication via Interlocked Packet Transmission
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional communication systems in applications like robot-assisted surgery face challenges with high bandwidth requirements, strict synchronization, and reliability, often requiring cumbersome setups and inadequate synchronization precision due to the use of multiple paths and suboptimal communication standards.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that transmit data packets between nodes with interlocked transmission and receipt, allowing for precise synchronization and low latency, using fixed-length packets with flow-control information and error detection, enabling efficient communication over a single physical path with rapid fault propagation and error recovery.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional communication systems use multiple paths (hundreds of wires) to connect control console to robotic arms, then reliability and bandwidth requirements are met, but setup and maintenance become cumbersome and substantial room is required to route all paths
Solution Approach 1:
The patent consolidates hundreds of separate communication paths into a single serial communication path using packet switching. Multiple data streams are merged into unified data packets that traverse a single physical connection, eliminating the need for hundreds of individual wires while maintaining all communication channels through time-multiplexed packet transmission.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention uses digital packet representations to carry information that previously required dedicated physical paths. Each data packet contains addressed information that copies the functionality of multiple separate connections, allowing the same communication capabilities to be replicated through software-based packet routing rather than physical wire multiplication.
2Power
If IEEE-1394 interface standard is used for synchronous communication, then guaranteed bandwidth is provided, but synchronization precision is limited to approximately 125 microseconds
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the time parameter from fixed 125-microsecond synchronization intervals to variable inter-packet arrival times measured with microprocessor precision. By using packet timestamps and measuring actual arrival times against expected times, the system achieves synchronization precision in the microsecond range or better, far exceeding the IEEE-1394 limitation while maintaining guaranteed bandwidth through flow control mechanisms.
3Speed
If data packets are transmitted without waiting for acknowledgment, then transmission speed increases, but latency bounding becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements acknowledgment packets that provide feedback about received data packets. The transmitting node sends data packets without waiting for acknowledgments, maintaining high speed transmission. The receiving node sends acknowledgment packets that confirm receipt, and the transmitting node uses these acknowledgments to bound latency by detecting when acknowledgments are delayed beyond expected time windows, indicating potential transmission issues without slowing the overall transmission rate.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent establishes predetermined time windows for expected packet arrivals and acknowledgments before transmission begins. By pre-calculating and communicating expected timing parameters, the system creates benchmarks against which actual transmission and acknowledgment times are measured, enabling latency bounding through comparison rather than through slow sequential acknowledgment-waiting transmission.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods, apparatus, and computer program products that synchronously communicate data packets between a first node and a second node. Data packets are transmitted from the first node without waiting for acknowledgment of receipt by the second node. Acknowledgment of receipt of a given data packet is subsequently received at the first node. The acknowledgement is received substantially at a predetermined time following transmission of the given data packet. The acknowledgement indicates that the second node received the given data packet uncorrupted.