Telemetry Gateway Phase Scheduling for Low-Latency Variable Retrieval
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing gateways experience latency in retrieving and transmitting telemetry data from field devices to cloud servers due to synchronization issues between variable retrieval and gateway requests, leading to delays in providing current variable values.
Innovation Solution
The gateway decouples variable retrievals from gateway requests by performing periodic retrievals ahead of time, ensuring that current variable values are available in the field device communication component before the gateway request, allowing for immediate transmission to the cloud communication component.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of time
If variable retrieval is activated by internal gateway request, then the system follows conventional request-response pattern, but latency occurs in providing current variable value to cloud communication component
Solution Approach 1:
The field device communication component performs variable retrieval in advance before the gateway request occurs. By decoupling the retrieval timing from the request timing and executing retrieval periodically ahead of time, the current variable value is already available in the field device communication component when the gateway request arrives, eliminating latency without requiring complex synchronization mechanisms
Solution Approach 2:
The system separates the variable retrieval function from the gateway request function, creating independent periodic processes. The field device communication component handles retrieval independently while the cloud communication component handles requests independently, with data flowing between them. This segmentation allows each component to operate autonomously without tight coupling, reducing synchronization complexity
2Speed
If variable retrieval is performed periodically independently of gateway requests, then current variable value is rapidly available to cloud communication component, but retrieval and request operations become decoupled
Solution Approach 1:
The system sets the phase of periodic retrieval points relative to periodic request points such that retrieval occurs before the corresponding request. This preliminary action ensures that when a gateway request arrives at a request point, the field device communication component has already completed the variable retrieval and the current variable value is ready for immediate transmission, achieving rapid availability without complex real-time coordination
Solution Approach 2:
Both variable retrieval and gateway requests are structured as periodic operations with defined phases. The retrieval period and request period are coordinated such that retrieval consistently precedes the corresponding request by an appropriate time margin. This periodic structure provides predictable, repeatable timing behavior that simplifies phase coordination compared to ad-hoc request handling
Data Source
AI summary
A gateway for retrieving telemetry data from a field device and for transmitting the retrieved telemetry data to a cloud server, wherein the gateway comprises a cloud communication component which is designed to specify periodic request points in time at which an internal gateway request for a current variable value of a variable of the telemetry data is to be made, as well as a field device communication component which is designed to carry out a variable retrieval of the current variable value from the field device at periodic retrieval points in time. The gateway is designed to set the phase of the periodic retrieval points in time relative to the periodic request points in time such that the respective current variable value has already been retrieved from the field device at the request point in time of this gateway request and is present in the field device communication component.