Temporary Gateway Routing for Low-Latency Zigbee Mesh Streaming
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Solution Overview
Problem
Connected lighting systems face limitations in throughput and latency due to bandwidth-limited wireless mesh networks, particularly in scenarios requiring high data transmission, such as entertainment streaming and firmware updates, where existing solutions result in increased latency and network load.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a temporary gateway with single-hop connectivity to bypass the multi-hop network by establishing a connection via Ethernet, Wi-Fi, LTE, or BLE, leveraging combo devices with both multi-hop and single-hop capabilities, and controlling the temporary gateway to send messages directly to target devices, reducing the load on the multi-hop network.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If data transmission is performed through the multi-hop wireless mesh network, then device connectivity and network coverage are improved, but latency increases and throughput decreases for bandwidth-intensive applications
Solution Approach 1:
A temporary gateway device is introduced as an intermediary between the multi-hop network and target devices. This gateway establishes a direct single-hop connection to target devices, bypassing the multi-hop routing path. The gateway receives data from the multi-hop network and forwards it directly to the target device, thereby reducing latency while maintaining network coverage benefits.
Solution Approach 2:
The network path is segmented into two parts: the multi-hop network path for general connectivity and a separate direct single-hop path for bandwidth-intensive data transmission. By dividing the transmission path, the system can use the appropriate path for different types of traffic, reducing latency for time-sensitive applications while maintaining overall network coverage.
2Adaptability or versatility
If data transmission is performed through the multi-hop wireless mesh network, then device connectivity is maintained, but network load increases and throughput decreases for bandwidth-intensive applications
Solution Approach 1:
The temporary gateway acts as a mediator that offloads bandwidth-intensive traffic from the multi-hop network. By establishing a direct single-hop connection to target devices, the gateway creates a dedicated high-throughput path that does not consume multi-hop network bandwidth, thereby maintaining device connectivity while improving overall network productivity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system adds another dimension to the network architecture by introducing a parallel transmission path. Instead of relying solely on the multi-hop path, a direct single-hop path is created through the temporary gateway, providing an additional route for data transmission that increases overall network throughput capacity.
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention relates to a Zigbee or other multi-hop network that can become a bottleneck for certain applications, e.g. entertainment streaming to (multiple) areas in the areas (e.g. at home) where hopping is needed. By locally utilizing an temporary gateway (50) being present right in a data-hungry area, the overall performance across the network can be improved. Using this temporary gateway (50), (part of) the data can be routed 5 directly to/from the destination/source nodes (10, 40) thus freeing up capacity in the remainder of the network.