Tiered Sensor Node Ecosystem for Distributed Data Storage
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional data storage systems face challenges in ensuring cost and bandwidth efficiency while maintaining data integrity and availability, particularly in edge applications like surveillance systems, where data may not be ideally stored in the cloud due to bandwidth limitations and local storage costs.
Innovation Solution
A tiered ecosystem is introduced, where sensor nodes communicate public data for backup storage and private data is protected using distributed key management, ensuring data integrity and availability through RAID-type designs and erasure codes, with public and private data paths differentiated to optimize data flow and security.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If data is stored in the cloud, then storage capacity is improved, but bandwidth usage and storage costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments data into public and private portions, and further divides data storage across multiple distributed nodes rather than centralized cloud storage. Each node stores only a portion of the overall data set, reducing individual node storage requirements and distributing bandwidth loads across the network, thereby reducing total bandwidth consumption and storage costs while maintaining overall storage capacity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates duplicate copies of data portions and distributes them across multiple sensor nodes in the network. Instead of storing all data in the cloud, critical data portions are replicated locally at distributed nodes, eliminating the need for continuous cloud bandwidth usage for data retrieval while maintaining data availability and capacity.
2Loss of energy
If data is distributed across sensor nodes, then storage costs and bandwidth usage are reduced, but data security and integrity become more challenging
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies different quality measures to different data portions based on their sensitivity. Public data portions are stored with standard protection, while private data portions receive enhanced security measures including encryption and distributed key management. This localized differentiation of security quality maintains strong data protection for sensitive information while reducing overall system complexity and costs.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent combines multiple security mechanisms into a composite protection system: data is divided into public and private portions, encrypted using distributed key management for private portions, and stored across multiple nodes. This composite approach integrates several security layers (encryption, key distribution, distributed storage) to achieve robust data integrity and security while maintaining cost efficiency.
3Reliability
If private data is protected using distributed key management, then data security is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the complex key management functionality into a separate, dedicated component within each sensor node. Rather than implementing full key management systems across the entire distributed network, each node contains a localized key management module that handles only its own cryptographic keys. This extraction isolates complexity to manageable, independent units, maintaining strong security while reducing overall system complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
One or more networks each include a plurality of sensor nodes operable to communicate public data with each other. Each of the plurality of sensor nodes is operable to gather sensor node data and store the sensor node data locally on the sensor node. Duplicate portions of the sensor node data are distributed to the public data of others of the plurality of sensor nodes via the public data paths for backup storage. The system includes a host that is coupled to individually communicate private data with each of the plurality of sensor nodes. Each of the sensor nodes protects the private data from others of the sensor nodes using distributed key management to ensure distributed encryption.