Managing Communication Congestion For Internet of Things Devices

• US 20170187597A1
• 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, Nolan, Keith, Cheevers, Pat, Kelly, Mark, Brady, John
• Granted Patent: US 10,057,150 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/062 related to network traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/065 related to network devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0882 Utilisation of link capacity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0888 Throughput
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/00 Traffic control in data switching networks arrangements for detecting or preventing errors in the information received H04L1/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/11 Identifying congestion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]
• 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 69/28 Timers or timing mechanisms used in protocols

Abstract

A method and apparatus for managing network congestion for internet-of-things (IoT) devices is provided. An exemplary method includes sending out tracer messages to a plurality of cloud components. Response messages are monitored from the plurality of cloud components. Response messages received are stored in a storage system. The response messages are queried to determine conditions in the cloud. An alert message is created to report network conditions to an IoT device.

Claims

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

a pipeline processing application, wherein the pipeline processing application is configured to;

send tracer messages to each of a plurality of components in a cloud;

determine a congestion level, c, by time differences between responses and the tracer messages; and

generate backpressure alert messages

an IoT device, comprising;

a data transfer controller configured to dispatch messages to the pipeline processing application in the cloud; and

a backpressure monitor configured to accept the backpressure alert messages and adjust a dispatch of messages from the data transfer controller.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the responses comprise forwarded tracer messages.

3. 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 pass messages from the plurality of IoT devices to the pipeline processing application.

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

5. The apparatus of claim 1, comprising a data router in the cloud interfaced to the IoT device, wherein the data router is configured to send backpressure alert messages to the IoT device.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, comprising a storage device, wherein the storage device comprises a store of responses to the tracer messages, and wherein the store of responses is queried to determine time differences between messages.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the IoT device comprises:

a sensor configured to measure a parameter; and

a network interface to dispatch a message comprising the parameter.

8. A method for measuring backpressure in a computing cloud, comprising:

sending out tracer messages to a plurality of components in a cloud;

monitoring for response messages from the plurality of components;

storing received response messages in a storage system;

querying the response messages to determine network conditions in the cloud; and

creating an alert message to report network conditions to an internet of things (IoT) device.

9. The method of claim 8, comprising identifying that a component has failed by a missing response message.

10. The method of claim 8, comprising determining a time difference between sending a tracer message and storing a corresponding response message.

11. The method of claim 8, comprising calculating a congestion level, c, as a number between 0 and 1, wherein a lower value for c represents a slower transfer of data in the cloud.

12. The method of claim 11, comprising setting c as a lower value of a throughput congestion level, tc, or a buffer congestion level, bc.

13. The method of claim 12, comprising calculating tc for a component as a ratio of a current time for a response divided by a baseline time for the response from the component.

14. The method of claim 12, comprising calculating bc from an amount of free disk space, a message rate, a size of messages, or a number of seconds required to fill a buffer, or any combinations thereof.

15. The method of claim 14, comprising calculating bc by:

calculating the number of seconds, n, required to fill a buffer using the following equation;

16. The method of claim 12, comprising setting c to a lowest value determined for a component in a data processing pipeline.

17. The method of claim 16, comprising generating an alert message comprising c.

18. The method of claim 16, comprising generating a java script object notation (JSON) message comprising c.

19. The method of claim 17, comprising sending the alert message to the IoT device.

20. The method of claim 17, comprising storing the alert message for access by the IoT device.

21. A non-transitory, computer readable medium comprising code to direct a processor to:

send out tracer messages to a plurality of components in a cloud;

monitor for response messages from the plurality of components;

store received response messages in a storage system;

query the response messages to determine network conditions in the cloud; and

create an alert message to report network conditions to an internet of things (IoT) device.

22. The non-transitory, computer readable medium of claim 21, comprising code to direct a processor to identify that a component has failed by a missing response message.

23. The non-transitory, computer readable medium of claim 21, comprising code to direct a processor to calculate a congestion level, c, as a number between 0 and 1, wherein a lower value for c represents a slower transfer of data in the cloud, wherein c is set as a lower value of a throughput congestion level, tc, or a buffer congestion level, bc.

24. The non-transitory, computer readable medium of claim 23, comprising code to direct a processor to calculate tc for a component as a ratio of a current time for a response divided by a baseline time for the response from the component.

25. The non-transitory, computer readable medium of claim 23, comprising code to direct a processor to calculate bc from an amount of free disk space, a message rate, a size of messages, or a number of seconds required to fill a buffer, or any combinations thereof.