KR20050069375A - Home network system and method for balancing load thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a home network system and a load balancing method thereof, which are suitable for distributing an excessive load in a specific device by connecting hardware resources between home appliances in parallel, and a plurality of home appliances capable of communicating with each other through a home network. A home network system comprising: monitoring a current workload of a processor of each of a plurality of home appliances constituting the home network system through a control unit of a host home appliance controlling a peripheral home appliance among the plurality of home appliances; And a controller state checker configured to distribute the work of the home appliance processor that is performing the task exceeding a preset processor workload threshold value through the home network so that the processor of the idle home appliance can be distributed. Idle between devices The oil hardware resources using the operation of the equipment to do this overloading is possible to improve the processing speed without waste of hardware resources by the overall dispersion process.

Description

Home network system and its load balancing method

The present invention relates to a home network system, and more particularly, to a home network system and a load balancing method thereof in which hardware resources between home appliances are connected in parallel to be suitable for distributing an excessive load on a specific device.

In general, a home network system (Hmoe Network System) is a home automation control system built to centrally control various home appliances, focusing on home servers, that is, home appliances corresponding to a host. Controls the operation of other home appliances, that is, a refrigerator, an air conditioner, a washing machine, a microwave oven, a boiler, and the like through a home appliance corresponding to the host.

Most of the microcomputers applied to the home application have a serial communication function and are developed to communicate with other home appliances, and the size of resources that can be used for communication varies according to the characteristics of the device.

A network system consisting of a PC (Personal Computer) and its peripherals, or a multimedia device such as a digital television (DTV), a PC, an Internet refrigerator, etc., adopts a high-performance hardware specification to operate basic functions. A communication standard such as HNCP (Home Network Control Protocol), which defines a standard for high-speed communication, that is, a method of connecting signal lines for communication between devices in a home network and an order of signal flow, is required.

Hereinafter, a home network system according to the related art will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a block diagram illustrating a conventional home network system.

As shown in FIG. 1, a home network includes home appliances such as a digital TV 110, a washing machine 120, an air conditioner 130, a PC 140, a DVD 150, a home theater 160, and a refrigerator 170. It shows that the system is configured.

In such a home network system, each home appliance 110 to 170 is digitalized, and each home appliance 110 to 170 has its own processor, memory, and data storage. And more and more hardware (H / W) resources (e.g., more and more) as the size and speed of work to be performed independently in each of the home appliances 110 to 170 increases. For example, they require a central processing unit (CPU), a microprocessor, a memory, and the like.

However, this is a factor that increases the unit price of the device, and considers that resources are considerably greater in terms of idle time rather than actual use time in terms of usage time for each home appliance 110 to 170. It can be seen that it causes waste.

For example, if an excessive load occurs while watching a digital TV 110 equipped with a private video recorder (PVR) function in a home, the central processing unit of the digital TV 110 itself and the microprocessor may be used. The number of connections to workload or memory and / or data storage increases rapidly.

If this condition persists, for example, when the digital TV 110 is the host system of the home network system, the degradation of processing speed and the possibility of error increase in terms of the entire system, and in the worst case, the home network system is down. ) Or, if not, a decrease in system performance due to overwork.

In the home network system according to the prior art, in order to reduce risks such as system performance degradation or system down, each household appliance uses a more stable processor and other hardware (H / W). This causes an increase in the unit price, resulting in an increase in consumer burden.

Accordingly, the present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems of the prior art, the present invention is to distribute the hardware resources between the home appliances connected in a home network with each other in parallel to distribute the excessive load in a specific device in the home appliances in the idle state It is an object of the present invention to provide a home network system and a load balancing method thereof.

Home network system according to the present invention for achieving the above object is a home network system composed of a plurality of home appliances that can communicate with each other via a home network, the host for controlling the peripheral home appliances of the plurality of home appliances Monitors the current workload of the processors of each of the plurality of home appliances constituting the home network system through the control unit of the home appliance, and idles the work of the home appliance processor that is performing the task exceeding a preset processor workload threshold. And a controller state checker configured to distribute through the home network so that the processor of the home appliance can perform the distributed processing.

Preferably, the host home appliance comprises: a host central processing unit for processing tasks required by the host home appliance, a host memory storing instructions and data in the host central processing unit, and a transmission through the home network. It further comprises a data storage for storing data of a plurality of peripheral home appliances.

In the load balancing method of a home network system according to the present invention for achieving the above object, in the load balancing method of a home network system composed of a plurality of home appliances capable of communicating with each other via a home network, the plurality of home appliances Monitoring the workload of the plurality of home appliances at regular intervals through a control unit of the host home appliance at a control unit state checker of the host home appliance; and the workload of the plurality of home appliances exceeds a predetermined predetermined threshold If there is a home appliance, checking a current state of hardware resources of each of the peripheral home appliances and distributing the work of the home appliance in which the workload is exceeded to peripheral home appliances having idle hardware resources; Distributed tasks to the peripherals' processors Lee, and is achieved by transmitting the operation result to the home appliance by dispersing the work.

Preferably, the control unit state checker distributes the work if the work result is not transmitted to the home appliance in which the work is distributed after the work is distributed. The control unit state check unit, the control unit state check unit is distributed to the peripheral home appliances in the standby state when the work is distributed to the peripheral home appliances when the work load is exceeded.

Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of embodiments taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Hereinafter, a home network system and a load balancing method thereof according to the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a hardware resource connection method of a host and peripheral home appliances in a home network system according to the present invention.

The home network system according to the present invention monitors the work load between home appliances connected to a home network, thereby preventing a decrease in system performance due to an instant increase in work load. By distributing tasks using resources such as processor and memory of each idle state home appliance connected from a host device to a home network, speed is obtained by taking the results. And to increase the stability.

The home network system according to the present invention includes a host central processing unit (210) for processing tasks required by the host home appliance (200), and a host storing instructions and data from the host central processing unit (210). A memory 220, a data storage 230 for storing data of the plurality of peripheral home appliances 300, 400, 500, and 600 transmitted through the home network 700, and first to nth processors of the plurality of peripheral home appliances 300, 400, 500, and 600. The controller 240 controls the peripheral appliances 300, 400, 500, and 600 by interfacing with the 310, 410, 510, and 610, and checks the hardware resources of the peripheral appliances 300, 400, 500, and 600 through the controller 240, and selects any peripheral appliances according to the checked hardware resources. A plurality of main units, including a control unit status checker 250 that controls the control unit 240 to distribute the work of the device to other peripheral home appliances A host home appliance 200 operating as a host of the side home appliances 300, 400, 500, and 600, and a mutual interconnection network 700 electrically connecting the plurality of peripheral home appliances 300, 400, 500, 600 and the host home appliance 200 to each other. It is configured to include).

At this time, the control unit state check unit 250 of the host home appliance 200 is connected to the control unit 240, the host CPU 210, and the host memory 220, so that the hardware of the host home appliance 200 and the peripheral home appliances 300, 400, 500, and 600 are present. The resource state is checked at predetermined intervals, and the workload of the host home appliance 200 or the peripheral home appliances 300, 400, 500, 600 is distributed according to the check result. The hardware resources of the peripheral home appliances 300, 400, 500, and 600 may include the performance of the first to nth processors 310, 410, 510, 610, the size of the first to nth memories 320, 420, 520, 620, and the workload of the first to nth processors 310, 410, 510, 610. do.

In addition, the controller 240 periodically checks the workload of each peripheral household appliance 300, 400, 500, 600, etc. with the first to nth processors 310, 410, 510, 610 under the control of the controller state checker 250. Send to 250.

The controller 240 and the first to nth processors 310, 410, 510 and 610 are connected through a control bus, and the host memory and the controller 240 and the first to nth memories 320, 420, 520 and 620 are connected through a data bus. It is connected via a control bus and a data bus in the home network 700.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a load balancing method in a home network system according to the present invention.

In the load balancing method of the home network system according to the present invention, the controller state checker 250 of the host home appliance 200 polls the performance of the host CPU 210 or the peripheral home appliances at regular intervals. (polling) (S100). In this case, since the host home appliance 200 controls not only its own work but also other peripheral home appliances 300, 400, 500, and 600, the control unit state check unit 250 checks the performance of the host CPU 210. This can be done in a shorter period than the processor.

The polling result determines whether the workload of the processor of the host CPU 210 or the peripheral home appliance exceeds a predetermined predetermined threshold (S110).

As a result of determination (S110), when the current load of the processor of the host CPU 210 or the peripheral appliances does not exceed the threshold, the task in progress is continuously performed in the processor of the host CPU 210 or the peripheral appliances. To process (S170).

However, if the current load of the processor of the host CPU 210 or the peripheral home appliance exceeds the threshold (S110), the controller 240 may determine the state of hardware resources (processor and / or memory) of the peripheral home appliance. Check (S120).

According to the check result, the controller state checker 250 selects the resources of the home appliances having the idle hardware resources among the peripheral home appliances (S130), and the workload is thresholded to the hardware resources of the peripheral home appliances in the idle state. Distributing the work of the processor of the host home appliance 200 or the peripheral home appliance in excess (S140). At this time, the information on the start and end of the operation according to the monitoring of the status of hardware resources and the distribution of the work is made through a control bus, and the various parameters necessary for the distributed work and the work result processed by the peripheral appliances are the data bus ( Data bus). At this time, the main power is turned on only by the local power in the off state, that is, the peripheral device in the standby state, without checking the workload, but only through the control bus (Wake up) to distribute the workload.

The controller state checker 250 determines whether the processing result of the peripheral home appliance has timed out by a predetermined time (set time) through the controller 240 (S150). That is, it is determined whether a response is received within a set time.

Determination result (S150) The processing result received in a state where a predetermined time has not elapsed is controlled to be collected by the home appliance that distributed the distributed work proceeds to the operation being performed (S160).

However, if the processing result is not received even after the predetermined time elapses (S150), the processor distributes the processor distributed work of the host home appliance 200 or the peripheral home appliance in which the workload exceeds the threshold (170).

If the time elapsed is not defined, the host home appliance 200 or the processor of the peripheral home appliance continuously waits for a result of performing a task transmitted to the peripheral home appliance.

The above-described home network system and load balancing method of the present invention have the following effects.

First, by distributing the work of the device performing the overloaded task by using the shared hardware resources in the idle state between each home appliance can improve the processing speed without wasting the overall hardware resources.

Second, since high-performance hardware resources are not needed, it is possible to supply products to consumers at low prices due to a drop in product prices.

Third, workload balancing between processors is achieved, thereby ensuring fault-tolerance in systems using excessive workload, including host devices.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that various changes and modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

Therefore, the technical scope of the present invention should not be limited to the contents described in the embodiments, but should be defined by the claims.

1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a home network system according to the related art.

2 is a flowchart illustrating a load balancing method in a home network system according to the present invention.

3 is a block diagram illustrating a hardware resource connection relationship between a host and peripheral home appliances in a home network system according to the present invention.

* Description of the symbols for the main parts of the drawings *

200: host home appliance 210: host central processing unit (CPU)

220: host memory 230: data storage

240 control unit 250 control unit state check unit

300,400,500,600: Peripheral appliances 310,410,510,610: Processor

320,420,520,620: Memory 700: Home Network

Claims (5)

In a home network system composed of a plurality of home appliances that can communicate with each other via a home network, A current workload of a processor of each of a plurality of home appliances constituting the home network system is monitored through a control unit of a host home appliance controlling a peripheral home appliance among the plurality of home appliances, and exceeds a preset processor workload threshold. And a controller state checker configured to distribute the work of the home appliance processor that is performing the work through the home network so that the processor of the home appliance that is in an idle state can be distributedly processed. The method of claim 1, The host home appliance includes a host central processing unit that processes a task required by the host home appliance, a host memory that stores instructions and data in the host central processing unit, and a plurality of transmissions through the home network. The home network system, characterized in that it further comprises a data storage for storing data of the peripheral home appliances. In the load balancing method of a home network system composed of a plurality of home appliances that can communicate with each other via a home network, Monitoring the workload of the plurality of home appliances at regular intervals by the controller state checker of the host home appliance among the plurality of home appliances; When there is a home appliance whose workload exceeds a predetermined threshold among the plurality of home appliances, the current state of hardware resources of each of the peripheral home appliances is checked, and the work is performed by surrounding home appliances having idle hardware resources. Distributing the work of the household appliance in excess of the load; And processing the distributed work in a processor of the peripheral home appliances, and transmitting the work result to the home appliances in which the work is distributed. The method of claim 3, wherein The control unit state check unit processes the work in the home appliance that distributed the work if the work result is not transmitted to the home appliance that distributed the work after the work result is distributed to the home appliance in which the work is distributed after the work is distributed. Load balancing method in a home network system, characterized in that to control to. The method of claim 3, wherein The control unit state check unit loads the home appliance in a home network system, characterized in that when the work load of the home appliance exceeding the work load is distributed to the peripheral home appliance, the home appliance in the standby state is controlled to be started. Dispersion method.