Time variant data profile for a fabric network
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Solution Overview
Problem
Smart home networks face challenges in accurately recording and synchronizing data chronology across devices with intermittent connections and varying power states, leading to unclear relationships between events recorded by different devices.
Innovation Solution
A fabric network system that enables devices to communicate using a list of protocols and profiles, including a time-variant data profile for reporting historical observations, ensuring accurate temporal data exchange and synchronization across devices using a unique local address and flexible data formats like TLV packets.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Use of energy by moving object
If devices use intermittent connections and varying power states to save energy, then energy consumption is reduced, but chronological accuracy of recorded data deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a hub device as an intermediary that maintains continuous network connection and accurate time, mediating between the intermittent sleepy devices and the network. The hub stores and forwards time synchronization information to devices when they wake up, allowing devices to save energy while maintaining chronological accuracy through the intermediary's continuous operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary time synchronization by having the hub maintain accurate time continuously and prepare time reference information in advance. When sleepy devices wake up, they can immediately obtain pre-prepared time synchronization data without needing to maintain continuous connection, thus achieving both energy savings and chronological accuracy.
2Loss of energy
If devices operate independently with local clocks to save communication overhead, then communication overhead is reduced, but data synchronization between devices deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent establishes a common time reference level across all devices by having them synchronize to the hub's time. This creates equipotentiality in the time domain, where all devices operate from the same time baseline despite intermittent connections, ensuring that events from different devices can be chronologically correlated without continuous communication.
3Adaptability or versatility
If multiple network types are used to provide connectivity options, then adaptability of the network is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The hub acts as an intermediary that handles multiple network types and protocols. Individual devices only need to implement simple communication with the hub, while the hub manages the complexity of multiple network types (WiFi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, etc.), thus achieving high adaptability without increasing device complexity.
Data Source
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AI summary
Systems and methods for requesting, from another device, a list of available locales that are available to the other device, the request comprising a request for either a view of an entire profile instance of a locale profile on the other device, or a view of only available locales subfields of a locale profile on the other device. The list of available locales is received from the other device. Moreover, in response to the receiving the list of available locales, an active locale profile for the electronic device is selected, and a request is sent, to the other device, to change the active locale for the electronic device to the selected locale.