Optimizing evaluation patterns and data acquisition for stream analytics in resource-constrained wireless environments

• US 8,615,597 B2
• Filed: 06/30/2010
• Issued: 12/24/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telcordia Technologies Incorporated (Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson)
• Original Assignee: Telcordia Technologies Incorporated (Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson)
• Inventors: Misra, Archan, Falchuk, Benjamin, Roy Chowdhury, Atanu
• Primary Examiner(s): DAILEY, THOMAS J
• Application Number:
  US12/827,118
• Publication Number:
  US 20120002733A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,273 Days
• Field of Search: 709/232, 375/259
• US Class Current: 709/232
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/60 Network streaming of media packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4516 involving client characteristics, e.g. Set-Top-Box type, software version or amount of memory available
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/06 Optimizing the usage of the radio link, e.g. header compression, information sizing , discarding information system modifying transmission characteristic according to link quality by modifying frame length H04L1/0007; dynamic adaptation of the packet size for flow control or congestion control H04L47/365
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0219 where the power saving management affects multiple terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/12 Wireless traffic scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Mobile wireless devices may receive data streams from multiple remote sensors. The sensors may have limited power supplies and memory capacity. Aspects of the invention use statistical characteristics of the sensor data streams and the cost of acquiring a single element of each stream to determine what sequence the sensors should send their data streams in. The cost of acquiring the data may be modified dynamically, depending on parameters such as block size. Additional factors, such as a sensor'"'"'s buffer capacity, may limit the amount of stream elements that may be cached and affect the sensors'"'"' stream transmit sequence. The evaluation order may be dynamically modified using an event processing engine, to reflect both changing statistics of underlying sensor stream tuples and time-varying acquisition costs associated with individual streams. This helps to increase in the operational lifetime of the sensors and associated monitoring applications.

Claims

1. A method of managing data streams from sensor devices received by a mobile client device, the method comprising:

identifying a plurality of data streams each corresponding to a respective sensor device, each of the plurality of data streams being receivable by the mobile client device;

determining a total weighted cost for each of the sensor devices to proactively transmit the respective sensor device data in predetermined data chunks, where weighting for the total weight cost is associated with a likelihood of individual tuples in a given data chunk being relevant to one or more queries processed by the event processing module and a communication cost involved in acquiring a given data chunk;

sorting the total weighted costs for the respective data streams; and

instructing the sensor devices to transmit their respective data streams according to the sorted total weight costs

specifying an order for which each of the plurality of data streams is to be acquired or processed by an event processing module of the client device;

using the specified order to receive the plurality of data streams;

determining, by the event processing module, at least a partial result of a query predicate using data from the received plurality of data streams; and

the event processing module dynamically modifying some property of a process by which a selected set of the plurality of data streams transmit their data to the event proceeding module.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the dynamically modifying step includes dynamically modifying the order for acquiring or processing data from selected ones of the selected set of data streams based upon the partial result of the query predicate.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the dynamically modifying step includes dynamically modifying a given property of the selected set of sensors.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the given property is a sensor sampling or transmission rate.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the given property is a chunk size in which the data is transmitted to the event processing module.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein specifying the order is based on an evaluation of a statistical distribution of values of chosen ones of the plurality of data streams and costs of acquiring data for the respective chosen data streams.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising determining an order for minimizing a total cumulative data acquisition and evaluation cost.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising determining an order for optimizing at least one additional performance metric based on a consideration of residual energy of a respective one of the sensor devices or the mobile client device.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the at least one additional performance metric is an operational lifetime of a query evaluation.

10. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

tracking any changes to the statistical distribution of the values of the chosen ones of the plurality of data streams; and

using the statistical distribution to modify the order of stream acquisition and evaluation.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising using a determination of pre-specified contextual states to trigger the modification of the order of stream acquisition and evaluation.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the plurality of data streams in the specified order includes:

the event processing module dynamically indicating a chunking size for the plurality of data streams; and

instructing the sensor devices to transmit their respective data streams according to the indicated chunking size.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein upon determining at least the partial result of the query predicate, the method further comprises instructing a first one of the sensor devices to delay transmission of the respective sensor device data stream.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein determining at least the partial result includes determining whether a predicate for a second one of the sensor devices does not meet a specified criterion.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

associating each of the plurality of data streams with a corresponding acquisition cost, the acquisition cost being a function of a size and rate of data generated by the respective sensor device; and

setting an acquisition order for controlling transmissions of the plurality of data streams.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising issuing an alert based upon determining the partial result of the query predicate.