Unicast Chain Multicast Data Flow for QoS
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional multicast communication in systems with multiple devices can lead to congestion and fail to achieve quality-of-service (QoS) goals, especially when the communication paths are congested or have poor performance, making it inefficient and unreliable.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a modified form of multicast communication using a chain of unicast communications between successive pairs of devices, where a primary sender device sends data to multiple receiver devices through intermediate secondary sender devices, allowing each pair to handle the data flow independently and manage QoS for each unicast communication.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If traditional multicast communication is used to send data from one sender to multiple receivers, then communication efficiency is improved, but congestion occurs and quality-of-service goals are not achieved
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the traditional multicast communication into multiple unicast communications between successive pairs of devices. Instead of one sender broadcasting to multiple receivers simultaneously, the data flows through a chain of unicast transmissions where each device communicates with its immediate neighbor, thereby avoiding congestion while maintaining communication efficiency
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces intermediary devices that act as secondary senders in the communication chain. These intermediaries receive data from the primary sender and forward it to the next device in the chain, enabling reliable data transmission through multiple hops while managing bandwidth and latency at each stage
2Reliability
If separate unicast communications are used to send data to each receiver, then reliability is improved, but device complexity and configuration difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple unicast communications into a unified chain structure where devices serve dual roles as both receivers and senders. This combination maintains the reliability of unicast communication while simplifying configuration, as each device only needs to communicate with its immediate neighbors rather than being configured with information about all other devices in the system
3Productivity
If multicast communication is used in systems with high communication path utilization, then bandwidth utilization is improved, but congestion is triggered across multiple communication paths
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the multicast data flow into multiple sequential unicast transmissions along a chain of devices. This segmentation distributes the bandwidth utilization across multiple time-separated transmissions rather than simultaneous multicast, preventing congestion while maintaining effective use of available bandwidth resources
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs periodic action by transmitting data through the chain of devices in sequential hops rather than simultaneously to all receivers. Each device transmits to the next in the chain at different time intervals, creating a periodic transmission pattern that avoids overwhelming any single communication path and prevents congestion
Data Source
AI summary
A first receiver device receives, from a sender device in a unicast communication, a data flow including a multicast identifier, the multicast identifier indicating that the data flow is to reach multiple receiver devices. The first receiver device determines that the data flow is to reach multiple receiver devices in response to detecting the multicast identifier. The first receiver device sends, to a second receiver device in a unicast communication, the data flow including the multicast identifier.