Mobile Edge Cache for Video Streaming Latency
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing data backup systems, particularly those relying on remote servers, face issues with reliability due to single points of failure, high retrieval times caused by network congestion or server busy conditions, and privacy and security concerns with third-party data sharing.
Innovation Solution
A distributed backup system that stores data across multiple user devices and a cloud storage server, allowing users to define backup policies and utilizing edge caching by transmitting data from proximate devices instead of the server for faster access, and optimizing data storage based on access patterns.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If data is stored on a remote server, then data backup is achieved, but data retrieval speed deteriorates due to network congestion or server busy conditions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the centralized backup system into a distributed network of peer devices. Instead of all data passing through a single remote server, the backup data is divided and stored across multiple peer devices in the network, enabling parallel data retrieval paths and reducing dependency on any single node.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a distributed network of peer devices as intermediaries between the user and the backup storage. These peer devices act as mediators that can cache and forward data requests, reducing direct load on remote servers and enabling faster local data access through the network.
2Productivity
If data is stored on a remote server, then data backup is achieved, but system reliability deteriorates due to single point of failure
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the centralized backup storage into distributed segments across multiple peer devices. This segmentation eliminates the single point of failure by ensuring that data redundancy exists across multiple independent nodes, so if one node fails, data can be retrieved from other nodes.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the system architecture parameter from centralized to distributed storage. This fundamental parameter change transforms the reliability model from dependent on a single server to resilient across multiple peers, improving system availability while maintaining backup efficiency.
3Speed
If data is cached on proximate devices, then data retrieval speed is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes each peer device in the network multi-functional: devices can act as clients requesting data, as servers providing data storage, and as intermediaries forwarding requests. This universality simplifies the overall system by using existing device capabilities rather than requiring specialized caching hardware or software.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements self-service mechanisms where peer devices automatically manage their own data caching and sharing responsibilities. Devices autonomously participate in the distributed network, managing their storage resources and data transfer operations without requiring complex centralized control or manual configuration.
Data Source
AI summary
Technology is disclosed for using computing devices (“the devices”) of a user as an edge cache of a distributed backup system to stream video files. In the distributed backup system, the user can store different data files of the user at different devices of the user and/or at a server. For example, the user may store video files at one of the devices of the user (“a first device”) in addition to storing at the server. When the user requests to stream a particular video file to a particular device, the technology streams the video file to the particular device either from the server or from the first device. If the first device is in proximity to the particular device, the video file is streamed from the first device instead of from the server, thereby minimizing the latency involved in streaming the video file from the server.