Zigbee Router Fragment Handling for Sleepy End Device Redundancy
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Solution Overview
Problem
The Zigbee protocol experiences significant redundant communication overhead and increased power consumption due to frequent re-transmissions and unnecessary acknowledgments in fragmented data exchanges, particularly in 'sleepy' end devices, leading to inefficient network traffic and battery drain.
Innovation Solution
A Zigbee router device is configured to intercept and manage data blocks, recognizing re-transmissions, and send acknowledgments on behalf of the end device, optimizing the fragmentation window to reduce redundant communications and power consumption.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the Zigbee protocol uses fragmentation with fixed window size for data transmission, then data reliability is improved, but communication overhead and power consumption increase due to frequent re-transmissions and acknowledgments
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic adjustment of the fragmentation window size based on network conditions and device states. Instead of using a fixed window size of 1, the system can adaptively increase the window size to reduce the frequency of acknowledgments and re-transmissions, thereby lowering power consumption while maintaining data reliability. This dynamic approach allows the system to optimize between reliability and energy usage based on current operational requirements.
2Reliability
If the Zigbee protocol uses fragmentation with fixed window size, then data transmission reliability is improved, but communication efficiency deteriorates due to redundant traffic
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts the fragmentation window size to optimize communication efficiency. By increasing the window size beyond the traditional fixed value of 1, the protocol reduces the number of individual acknowledgments required, thereby decreasing redundant traffic and improving overall communication throughput while preserving data transmission reliability through maintained acknowledgment mechanisms.
3Reliability
If the Zigbee protocol requires acknowledgment for each received fragment, then data integrity is ensured, but power consumption increases due to frequent transmission activities
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic window size adjustment that allows larger fragmentation windows under conditions where power conservation is critical. By increasing the window size, the system reduces the frequency of acknowledgment transmissions, thereby lowering power consumption while maintaining data integrity through the preserved acknowledgment mechanism. This creates a dynamic balance between ensuring data integrity and conserving battery power in sleepy end devices.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for delivering data frames from a source device to a Zigbee end device, ZED, via a Zigbee router device, ZR, comprises, at the ZR, receiving, a data request and at least one data block from a transmission window of a plurality of data blocks from the source device, and placing the received data block in a queue for transmission; receiving a data request from the ZED; transmitting, the received data block from the queue, to the ZED and receiving an acknowledgement from the ZED. The method further includes receiving a re-transmission of the transmission window of the data blocks from the source device; and dropping, at least one re-transmitted data block, previously received and transmitted by the ZR, and transmitting, by the ZR, the remaining re-transmitted data block(s) to the ZED.