The Challenge
Data corruption can have serious consequences for oceanographic current measurement devices, which are used to collect data on the movement and direction of ocean currents. Some of the potential consequences of data corruption are:
- Inaccurate measurements
- Data loss
- Increased costs
- Reduced confidence in the data.
- Safety concerns
It is therefore essential to ensure that data is collected, stored, and analyzed using reliable and robust data management practices, which is the reason why Nortek approached Logic Technology for Tuxera’s data management solutions. Since their measurement instruments are under water for many years, data integrity is crucial for their customers.
Their biggest challenge was that they did not have enough time to get their former open source file system in a safe state after a power-loss. Moreover, they needed a file system that could operate in parallel across different hardware platforms and OS’s for fast offloading of data from the devices in the field and logging data every 60 seconds locally in flash memory.
The Solution
After a successful evaluation, Nortek deployed Tuxera’s Reliance Edge Embedded File System across 3 projects since 2019. The Reliance Nitro was also deployed in 2021 together with the Reliance Edge.
- Reliance Edge is a copy-on-write transactional file system, meaning live data is never overwritten. This makes the system extremely power fail-safe. True transactional architecture ensures complete metadata and file data integrity.
- It is portable because it is written in portable C and is designed to work in a wide variety of embedded environments
- It is reliable because it implements an atomic, transactional model where changes either occur in their entirety or not at all, which is to say, the file system reverts to a “known good state” after system failures such as power loss.
- Reliance Nitro delivers throughput as close to the physical maximum of the storage media as possible. The tree-based directory structure of Nitro enables fast file operations, particularly when working with many small files.
- The software can be configured to use as little as 4KB of RAM and 11 KB of code. Therefore, it is ideal for resource-constrained embedded systems like microcontrollers.
The Results
Nortek’s primary objectives were to enhance data integrity in their acoustic doppler measurements as their instruments produce large amounts of data that are crucial for accurately characterizing fluid flow. Tuxera’s reliable file systems ensured that the data is stored correctly and without errors, preventing data corruption and ensuring data integrity.
Below the objectives that we helped them achieve and the additional benefits that they have by using Tuxera’s file systems:
- If a power failure should occur, Nortek’s devices now have fast and consistent mount times. There’s no need to replay a journal or perform any other file system checks – the file system always keeps the disk in a known good state.
- Dynamic Transaction Point technology gives developers complete compile-time and run-time control. This enables Nortek to customize the balance between performance and data at risk.
- Cyclic Redundancy Checks for file data and metadata
- Lifetime extension of the flash device: Less write amplification and fragmentation
- Design flexibility: readily portable to different embedded environments
- Multi-threaded architecture
About Nortek AS
Nortek designs, develops and produces scientific instruments that apply the Doppler principle to underwater acoustics in order to measure water in motion, such as currents and waves.
“Thanks to Logic Technology and Tuxera, we were able to implement an embedded data management solution, which assist us in our mission to provide reliable oceanographic data, to help cast light on the working of the world’s oceans”
Sven Nylund, Senior Development Engineer at Nortek AS
About Tuxera
Tuxera is the leading provider of quality-assured embedded storage management software and networking technologies.
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