On-Board Media Stream Buffering for Satellite Handoff Continuity

Resolve Bottlenecks,
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions

Solution Overview

Problem

Real-time media streaming services on-board vehicles experience significant disruptions during satellite handoffs, leading to signal loss and poor user experience due to 'break-before-make' connections, which can result in missed content and customer complaints.

Innovation Solution

An on-board system that receives multicast real-time media streams, packages them into time-delineated segments, buffers them, identifies missing segments after signal loss, requests and inserts these segments via unicast transmission to maintain seamless playback.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Productivity

If multicast satellite uplink is used to deliver real-time media streams to multiple aircraft, then resource efficiency and service coverage are improved, but signal loss during satellite handoffs disrupts service continuity

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveresource efficiencyVSAvoidservice continuity

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The media stream is divided into discrete segments that can be independently buffered, tracked, and reassembled. This segmentation allows the system to handle signal loss at the segment level rather than losing entire streams during handoffs.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The system pre-buffers media segments before playback and maintains a buffer of available segments. This preliminary action ensures that even if signal is lost during handoff, buffered segments are available to maintain continuous playback without interruption.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

2Ease of operation

If break-before-make connection is used during satellite handoff, then connection switching is simplified, but signal loss of 10-90 seconds occurs disrupting real-time content

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveconnection switchingVSAvoidsignal loss duration

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of operationVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

Media segments are pre-buffered before handoff occurs. The buffer is populated with segments ahead of time, so when the break-before-make handoff causes signal loss, the player can continue playing from the buffered segments without interruption.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The system creates and maintains copies of media segments in buffer memory. These copied segments serve as backup content that can be played during signal loss periods, effectively decoupling playback continuity from real-time signal availability.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #26Copying

3Adaptability or versatility

If signal loss occurs during satellite handoff, then connection reconfiguration is enabled, but users miss content segments causing poor user experience

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveconnection reconfigurationVSAvoidmissed content segments

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSLoss of information

Solution Approach 1:

By segmenting the media stream into discrete units with sequential identifiers, the system can track which segments were received and which were lost during handoff. This enables precise identification and recovery of only the missing segments rather than retransmitting entire streams.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The system maintains copies of all media segments in the buffer, including those that may have been lost during handoff. When signal is restored, the system can retrieve copied segments from the buffer and deliver them to the player to fill gaps in the content.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #26Copying

4Reliability

If unicast transmission is used to retransmit missing segments, then seamless playback is restored, but network bandwidth consumption increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveplayback seamlessVSAvoidnetwork bandwidth consumption

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSLoss of energy

Solution Approach 1:

The system identifies and requests only the specific missing segments via unicast, rather than retransmitting entire streams. This segmented approach minimizes bandwidth consumption by transferring only the necessary data to restore seamless playback.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The system applies partial action by requesting and transmitting only the minimal necessary segments to restore continuity, rather than excessive action of retransmitting complete streams. This optimizes bandwidth usage while achieving the goal of seamless playback.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #16Partial or excessive action

Data Source

PatentEP3520355B1Seamless delivery of real-time media stream with intermittent signal loss

Publication Date: 2021.08.25 GOGO BUSINESS AVIATION LLC

Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3

AI summary

A real-time media stream, multicast by a remote computing system, is received by an on-board system of a vehicle. While being received, the real-time media stream is packaged into time-delineated media segments that are input to a buffer. One or more missing segments are identified after a signal loss event (e.g., a satellite handoff), and a request for the missing segment(s) is/are caused to be sent to the remote computing system. The missing segment(s) is/are received from the remote computing system via a unicast transmission, and inserted into the buffer in sequence with the time-delineated media segments. The buffered real-time media stream, including the inserted segment(s), is caused to be provided to one or more electronic devices on-board the vehicle. In this manner, the real-time media stream may be seamlessly delivered to the on-board electronic device(s) despite a loss of connectivity due to the signal loss event.