Managing communication congestion for internet of things devices

• US 20170187642A1
• Filed: 12/23/2015
• Published: 06/29/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Nolan, Michael, Kelly, Mark, Nolan, Keith
• Granted Patent: US 10,097,379 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/263 Rate modification at the source after receiving feedback
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/32 by discarding or delaying data units, e.g. packets or frames
• 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 67/5682 Policies or rules for updating, deleting or replacing the stored data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/22 using selective relaying for reaching a BTS [Base Transceiver Station] or an access point

Abstract

A method and apparatus for managing communication congestion for internet of things (IoT) devices are provided. An exemplary apparatus includes an IoT device that includes a data transfer controller configured to create a sensor message and dispatch the sensor message to a pipeline processing application in a cloud. A data store is configured to store the sensor message in a cache if it cannot be sent due to communication issues. A data backlog transfer controller is configured to send the sensor message from the data store when the communications issues are not present.

Claims

1. An apparatus for managing communication congestion for internet of things (IoT) devices, comprising:

an IoT device, comprising;

a data transfer controller configured to create a sensor message and dispatch the sensor message to a pipeline processing application in a cloud;

a data store configured to store the sensor message in a cache if it cannot be sent due to communication issues; and

a data backlog transfer controller configured to send the sensor message from the data store when the communications issues are not present.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the data backlog transfer controller is configured to send the sensor message from the cache using a first in-first out mode, a last in-first out mode, or a sampled mode.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the data backlog transfer controller is configured to accept control messages that change a mode for sending the sensor message.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the IoT device comprises an IoT gateway coupled to a plurality of IoT devices and wherein the IoT gateway is configured to send sensor messages from the plurality of IoT devices to the pipeline processing application.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the IoT device comprises an IoT gateway coupled to a plurality of sensors.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, comprising a backpressure monitor configured to accept backpressure alert messages, wherein the backpressure monitor is configured to adjust a rate of dispatch of sensor messages from the cache.

7. A method for controlling communications from an internet of things (IoT) device, comprising:

dispatching a message to a data processing application in a cloud using a selected mode for selecting the message from a cache; and

checking for a request from the cloud to change the mode.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein, if the request is received:

parsing the request to change the mode;

determining if the request is to change to a last in-first out (LIFO) mode, and, if so, configuring the LIFO mode;

determining if the request is to change to a sampled mode, and, if so, configuring the sampled mode; and

determining if the request is to change to a first in-first out (FIFO) mode, and, if so, configuring the FIFO mode.

9. The method of claim 7, comprising dispatching the message using a LIFO mode, comprising:

selecting the sensor message from a queue, wherein the message is a last message added to the queue;

dispatching the message to a consumer; and

determining if the dispatch was successful, and, if so, deleting the message from the queue.

10. The method of claim 7, comprising dispatching the message using a FIFO mode, comprising:

selecting the message from a queue, wherein the message is a first message added to the queue;

dispatching the message to a consumer; and

determining if the dispatch was successful, and, if so, deleting the message from the queue.

11. The method of claim 7, comprising dispatching the message using a sampled mode, comprising:

selecting the message from a queue, wherein the message is randomly selected from the queue;

dispatching the message to a consumer; and

determining if the dispatch was successful, and, if so, deleting the message from the queue.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein dispatching the message, comprises:

checking if a backpressure alert is present at an IoT device, and, if not, requesting a backpressure alert message from a cloud component;

calculating a replay rate, r; and

if the replay rate is zero, then

iterating checking for the backpressure alert.

13. The method of claim 12, comprising:

calculating an updated replay rate by the following equation;

r′

=r*f,

 

wherein r′

denotes the updated replay rate and f denotes a message dispatch frequency; and

replacing a current replay rate with the updated replay rate.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein f is once per minute.

15. The method of claim 7, comprising checking if a queue is empty, and, if not, selecting another sensor message from the queue.

16. A non-transitory, computer readable medium comprising instructions to direct a processor to:

adjust a replay mode, wherein the replay mode is selected from a last in-first out (LIFO) mode, a first in-first out (FIFO) mode, or a sampled mode;

adjust a replay rate;

select a message from a queue using the replay mode; and

dispatch the message to a cloud.

17. The non-transitory, computer readable medium of claim 16, comprising instructions to direct the processor to request a backpressure alert message.

18. The non-transitory, computer readable medium of claim 17, comprising instructions to direct the processor to adjust the replay rate based, at least in part, on the backpressure alert message.

19. The non-transitory, computer readable medium of claim 16, comprising instructions to determine if the message has been successfully dispatched, and, if so, delete the message from the queue.

20. The non-transitory, computer readable medium of claim 16, comprising instructions to direct the processor to create the message.

21. An internet of things (IoT) device for managing communication congestion, comprising:

a data transfer controller configured to create a sensor message and dispatch the sensor message to a pipeline processing application in a cloud;

a data store configured to store the sensor message in a cache if it cannot be sent due to communication issues; and

a data backlog transfer controller configured to send the sensor message from the data store.

22. The IoT device of claim 21, wherein the data backlog transfer controller is configured to send the sensor message from the cache using a first in-first out mode, a last in-first out mode, or a sampled mode.

23. The IoT device of claim 21, wherein the data backlog transfer controller is configured to accept control messages that change a mode for sending the sensor message.

24. The IoT device of claim 21, comprising an IoT gateway coupled to a plurality of IoT devices and wherein the IoT gateway is configured to send sensor messages from the plurality of IoT devices to the pipeline processing application.

25. The IoT device of claim 21, comprising an IoT gateway coupled to a plurality of sensors.