Time-Variant Data Profile for Sleepy Device Event Synchronization
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Solution Overview
Problem
Smart home networks face challenges in accurately recording and synchronizing data across devices due to 'sleepy' devices with intermittent connections, leading to chronological inaccuracies and unclear relationships between events from different devices.
Innovation Solution
A fabric network system that enables devices to communicate using various protocols and profiles, including a time-variant data profile for reporting historical observations, ensuring accurate data exchange and synchronization across devices.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Use of energy by moving object
If devices use intermittent connections to save power, then energy consumption is reduced, but chronological accuracy of recorded data deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by establishing a reference time source before devices go into sleep mode. Each device records its local clock time and the reference time when connected, calculates time offsets in advance, and uses these pre-calculated offsets to accurately timestamp events even when disconnected. This preliminary time synchronization allows devices to operate intermittently while maintaining chronological accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention introduces a reference time source as an intermediary between multiple devices with intermittent connections. This mediator provides a common time reference that all devices can use to synchronize their local clocks and establish accurate chronological relationships between events, even when devices are not continuously connected to each other or to a central server.
2Device complexity
If devices operate independently with intermittent connections, then device complexity is reduced, but data synchronization between devices deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
A reference time source acts as a mediator that enables simple, independent devices to achieve reliable data synchronization. Each device independently records events with timestamps based on its local clock and stores the relationship between its local time and the reference time. This intermediary reference allows accurate chronological ordering of events from multiple devices without requiring complex inter-device communication or synchronization protocols.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the time parameter representation by recording not just absolute timestamps but also the relationship between local device time and reference time. This parameter transformation allows devices to operate independently with simple local clocks while enabling accurate time correlation when data is aggregated, effectively decoupling device complexity from synchronization reliability.
3Ease of operation
If devices use local clock times for recording events, then ease of operation is improved, but accuracy of event chronology across multiple devices deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The reference time source serves as an intermediary that bridges local device clocks with a common time reference. Devices continue to use their simple local clocks for recording events, maintaining ease of operation. The reference time mediates between these independent local clocks, providing the information needed to accurately correlate events across devices by calculating time offsets between local and reference times.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates a copy of the time reference relationship by recording both the local clock time and the corresponding reference time at synchronization points. This copied time relationship information is stored with event data, allowing accurate reconstruction of chronological order without requiring devices to continuously maintain synchronized clocks or use complex timekeeping mechanisms.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods for exchanging a data stream of information that varies over time using a message format. The message format includes a version field that indicates a version of a structure of the message format. The message format also includes one or more resources fields that each identifies a resource to be imported into the data stream exchanging the data stream. Moreover, the message format includes one or more records that represent time-variant data samples being exchanged in the message. Furthermore, the message format includes one or more descriptor fields, wherein each descriptor field corresponds to at least one respective record of the one or more records and contains metadata describing data contained within the at least one record.