Distributed Media Player Content Storage for Aircraft IFE
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current seat-centric In-Flight Entertainment (IFE) systems require significant storage for a full content set at each seat, making them costly and inefficient, and existing solutions do not effectively address the need for cost-effective and redundant content distribution.
Innovation Solution
A vehicular entertainment system where a full content set is distributed across multiple media players, with each player storing a fraction of the content, allowing for redundancy and efficient updating, and content is striped across players to ensure availability even if some players are non-functional.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a full content set is stored at each seat in seat-centric IFE systems, then content availability and redundancy are improved, but storage requirements and system cost increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The content set is divided into multiple segments or chunks that are distributed across different media players. Each media player stores only a portion of the full content set rather than complete copies, reducing individual storage requirements while maintaining system-wide content availability through segmented distribution.
Solution Approach 2:
Multiple media players are merged into a distributed content storage system where their combined storage capacity provides the full content set. The system merges the storage resources of multiple players to achieve redundancy and availability without requiring each player to have full storage capacity.
2Reliability
If a full content set is stored at each seat, then system redundancy is improved, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
Each media player is designed with multi-functionality, serving both as a content storage device and a content requestor. Players can request and retrieve content segments from other players, reducing the need for complex centralized management while maintaining redundancy through peer-to-peer content sharing.
Solution Approach 2:
The media players autonomously manage their own content storage and retrieval needs. When content is needed, players automatically request missing segments from other players in the network, reducing the need for complex external management systems and simplifying overall system configuration.
3Reliability
If content is updated across all media players, then content freshness is improved, but update time and productivity are reduced due to full content redistribution
Solution Approach 1:
Content updates are applied segment by segment rather than redistributing complete content sets. Each media player receives and processes only the specific content segments that need updating, significantly reducing update time and improving productivity while maintaining content freshness across the system.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs partial content redistribution by updating only the necessary content segments rather than redistributing complete content sets. This partial action approach maintains content freshness where needed while avoiding the excessive time and resources required for full redistributions.
Data Source
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AI summary
Entertainment systems for aircraft and other vehicles are described having a plurality of media players. The media players collectively store a full content set, with each media player storing only a fraction of the full content set. Each of the media players can be configured to index the full content set, such that media players can obtain missing content from other media players.