Geo-replicated IoT hub

• US 10,666,724 B1
• Filed: 11/20/2018
• Issued: 05/26/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 11/20/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Agarwal, Kapil, Sharma, Vaibhav, Dar, Affan Arshad, Manda, Roopesh Kumar
• Primary Examiner(s): Sall, El Hadji M
• Application Number:
  US16/197,047
• Time in Patent Office: 553 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0663 Performing the actions predefined by failover planning, e.g. switching to standby network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/04 Processing captured monitoring data, e.g. for logfile generation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1051 Group master selection mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal

Abstract

Multiple geo-replicated and independent IoT (Internet of Things) hubs configured as servers with storage capacities are utilized and span across various regions in the world, to each of which IoT devices can connect and transmit telemetry data. The IoT devices, configured with sensors to generate telemetry data (e.g., temperature, pressure, etc.), can fail over to another geo-replicated IoT hub (the “target geo-replicated IoT hub”) when one IoT hub experiences technical failures or the IoT device changes location to a region which is covered by the target IoT hub. Upon receiving a connection request from the IoT device, the target geo-replicated IoT hub submits a proposal to available geo-replicated IoT hubs for ownership over the IoT device, that is, receive data from and transmit messages to the IoT device. A quorum is sought so that all IoT hubs are in agreement as to a current owner of the IoT device.

Claims

1. A method performed by a target Internet of Things (IoT) hub in a plurality of geo-replicated IoT hubs to maintain telemetry data redundancy for IoT devices across the plurality of geo-replicated IoT hubs, in which the target geo-replicated IoT hub and each of the plurality of geo-replicated IoT hubs are comprised of servers to communicate with IoT devices, comprising:

receiving telemetry data associated with an IoT device from a first geo-replicated IoT hub, in which the first geo-replicated IoT hub is connected to and communicates with the IoT device to receive the telemetry data;

receiving a request from the IoT device to establish a network connection for communicating telemetry data from the IoT device to the target geo-replicated IoT hub;

responsive to the received request, transmitting a proposal to each available geo-replicated IoT hub to receive ownership over the IoT device, ownership being that the IoT device transmits telemetry data to the target geo-replicated IoT hub and the target geo-replicated IoT hub transmits commands or data to the IoT device; and

taking ownership over the IoT device upon receiving confirmation from one or more of the available geo-replicated IoT hubs and a quorum being established among the plurality of geo-replicated IoT hubs for the target geo-replicated IoT hub to take ownership over the IoT device.

2. The method of claim 1, in which the request to establish the network connection from the IoT device is received while the first geo-replicated IoT hub still owns the IoT device and is capable of sending commands and data to the IoT device.

3. The method of claim 1, in which the target geo-replicated IoT hub and the plurality of geo-replicated IoT hubs are each assigned a defined geographical region, by which geo-replicated IoT hubs are assigned ownership over IoT devices based on which defined geographical region the IoT device is located.

4. The method of claim 1, in which telemetry data from the IoT device are transmitted to the target geo-replicated IoT hub upon establishing the quorum.

5. The method of claim 4, in which a version value for the IoT device is maintained by each geo-replicated IoT hub which indicates ownership over the IoT device by a specific geo-replicated IoT hub, and

wherein the proposal to receive ownership over the IoT device transmitted to each available geo-replicated IoT hub includes transmitting an updated version value that is used to verify new ownership over the IoT device.

6. The method of claim 5, in which the updated version value is an incremented number which contains a value higher than a previous version value maintained across the geo-replicated IoT hubs.

7. The method of claim 1, in which the request to establish the network connection from the IoT device is initiated on a client computing device by a user who has control over the IoT device.

8. One or more hardware-based non-transitory computer-readable memory devices storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors disposed in an Internet of Things (IoT) device, cause the IoT device to:

utilize a network connection with a first geo-replicated IoT hub of a plurality of geo-replicated IoT hubs, over which the IoT device transmits telemetry data;

responsive to an event, send a request to a target geo-replicated IoT hub of the plurality of geo-replicated IoT hubs to establish a network connection and transmit the telemetry data; and

establish and maintain the network connection with the target geo-replicated IoT hub in response to receiving a confirmation for ownership over the IoT device from the target geo-replicated IoT hub,

wherein the IoT device establishes and maintains the network connection to the target geo-replicated IoT hub when a quorum is present among each of the plurality of geo-replicated IoT hubs, which indicates that the target geo-replicated IoT hub is an owner over the IoT device, the owner of the IoT device being responsible for receiving D2C (device-to-cloud) messages from the IoT device and sending C2D (cloud-to-device) messages to the IoT device.

9. The one or more hardware-based non-transitory computer-readable memory devices of claim 8, in which the event includes location data indicating that the IoT device is present in a region of the target geo-replicated IoT hub, or the geo-replicated IoT hub is experiencing one or more of technical failures, storage failures, or infrastructure deficiencies.

10. The one or more hardware-based non-transitory computer-readable memory devices of claim 9, in which an owner or operator of the IoT device initiates the request for the target geo-replicated IoT hub to establish the network connection with the IoT device.

11. The one or more hardware-based non-transitory computer-readable memory devices of claim 8, in which the target geo-replicated IoT hub either synchronously or asynchronously replicates the telemetry data for the IoT device across each of the plurality of geo-replicated IoT hubs.

12. The one or more hardware-based non-transitory computer-readable memory devices of claim 11, in which an owner or operator of the IoT device selects synchronous or asynchronous data replication using a client computing device configured with control over the IoT device.

13. The one or more hardware-based non-transitory computer-readable memory devices of claim 8, in which the IoT device utilizes stateless services provided by the first geo-replicated IoT hub to communicate with the target geo-replicated IoT hub, wherein the stateless services include at least networking functionality.

14. The one or more hardware-based non-transitory computer-readable memory devices of claim 8, in which the executed instructions further cause the IoT device to:

receive an indication that establishing and maintaining the network connection with the target geo-replicated IoT hub will result in data loss from the first geo-replicated IoT hub; and

transmit permission to establish the network connection or cancel the network connection with the target geo-replicated IoT hub.

15. A target Internet of Things (IoT) hub in a plurality of geo-replicated IoT hubs each configured with one or more servers, the target geo-replicated IoT hub being associated with a first region inside a defined geographical area, comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more hardware-based memory devices storing computer-readable instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors cause the target geo-replicated IoT hub to;

receive a request to establish a network connection between the target geo-replicated IoT hub and an IoT device, in which the network connection is used to communicate data and commands between the IoT device and the target geo-replicated IoT hub;

transmit a request for permission to available geo-replicated IoT hubs for ownership over the IoT device responsive to the received request, in which ownership indicates that the target geo-replicated IoT hub is responsible for communicating the data and commands with the IoT device;

receive, from one or more of the available geo-replicated IoT hubs, confirmation to take ownership over and establish the network connection with the IoT device, such that the confirmation is a confirmatory quorum among the geo-replicated IoT hubs; and

establish the network connection with and take ownership over the IoT device upon receiving the confirmation.

16. The target geo-replicated IoT hub of claim 15, in which the received request to establish the network connection with the target geo-replicated IoT hub is from the IoT device and is due to one or more of user-initiated maintenance on a previously used geo-replicated IoT hub, or connectivity problems, technical failures, storage failures, or infrastructure deficiencies with the previously used geo-replicated IoT hub.

17. The target geo-replicated IoT hub of claim 16, in which the infrastructure deficiencies include technical incapability of the previously used geo-replicated IoT hub, of which the target geo-replicated IoT hub is configured to handle.

18. The target geo-replicated IoT hub of claim 15, in which a region for a respective target or geo-replicated IoT hub is decided by one or more boundary lines or perimeters and can extend across continents or countries.

19. The target geo-replicated IoT hub of claim 15, in which, while connected with the IoT device, a previously used geo-replicated IoT hub asynchronously replicates telemetry data for the IoT device with each of the plurality of geo-replicated IoT hubs, and the executed instructions further cause the target geo-replicated IoT hub to:

responsive to receiving confirmation to establish the network connection with the IoT device, check whether the telemetry data at the target geo-replicated IoT hub is up-to-date relative to that which is stored on the previously used geo-replicated IoT hub;

if the telemetry data is not up-to-date, attempt data recovery of the telemetry data from the previously used geo-replicated IoT hub;

if data recovery fails, determine whether to establish the network connection between the target geo-replicated IoT hub and the IoT device; and

establish the network connection with the IoT device based on the determination.

20. The target geo-replicated IoT hub of claim 19, in which the target geo-replicated IoT hub automatically establishes the network connection with the IoT device if the telemetry data is up-to-date or data recovery from the previously used geo-replicated IoT hub is successful.