Set-Top Box Streaming Context Preservation for Quick Reconnect
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing streaming technologies face delays and interruptions when a client device disconnects from a streaming session, requiring a fresh connection setup that increases latency and disrupts the streaming experience.
Innovation Solution
A method and system for set-top boxes to maintain an active streaming session after a client disconnects, continuing transcoding and storing data for a defined period, allowing seamless reconnection without restarting the transcoding engine when the client reconnects, thereby reducing latency by up to 2 seconds.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a fresh streaming connection is established after client exit, then a new streaming session can be created, but latency increases and streaming experience is disrupted
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by maintaining the streaming session in an active state and continuing to transcode data even after the client exits. This prepares the session for potential reconnection, so when the client returns, the session is already ready and waiting, eliminating the need to restart the transcoding engine and reducing reconnection latency by up to 2 seconds.
Solution Approach 2:
The transcoding engine continues to operate continuously without interruption or restart even when the client disconnects. The session remains active and data continues to be transcoded and buffered, ensuring that when the client reconnects, the streaming can resume immediately without the downtime associated with engine restart, thus maintaining continuous useful action.
2Productivity
If the streaming session is terminated after client exit, then system resources are freed, but reconnection requires full session restart causing delays
Solution Approach 1:
The system prepares for potential reconnection by maintaining the session active and continuing data transcoding in advance. This preliminary action ensures that when reconnection is needed, the session context is already preserved and the transcoding engine is already running, eliminating the restart delay while resources are still allocated and ready for immediate use.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the state parameter of the streaming session from 'terminated' to 'active' after client exit. By changing this parameter, the session maintains its context and the transcoding engine continues running, allowing the system to balance resource efficiency with the need for quick reconnection by adjusting the session lifecycle parameter.
3Reliability
If the transcoding engine is restarted upon client reconnection, then a fresh streaming pipeline is established, but latency increases by up to 2 seconds
Solution Approach 1:
The transcoding engine maintains continuous operation without interruption or restart. When the client reconnects, the engine is already running and the session context is preserved, allowing the streaming pipeline to resume immediately. This continuity eliminates the 2-second latency that would otherwise occur during engine restart while maintaining session stability through context preservation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs the action of keeping the transcoding engine running as a preliminary measure before reconnection occurs. By maintaining the engine in an active state and preserving session context in advance, the system ensures that when the client reconnects, no restart is needed, thus eliminating latency while ensuring the streaming pipeline is ready for immediate resumption.
Data Source
AI summary
Presented here is a method and system of operating set-top boxes with clients in a network that includes configuring a set-top box (STB) to reconnect to a client that exits from a streaming session. The method includes executing a streaming data from the STB to the client and in response to the client exiting the streaming session, maintaining the streaming session in the active state after the client has exited. Further continuing to transcode audio/video data after the client has exited and relinquishing audio/video data that is continuously transcoded and received in the streaming session up until a defined period. Thereafter, upon receiving a request by the client to reconnect, identifying the client for reconnection to the exited client from the streaming session and linking the client seamlessly so the client resumes reception of the streamed data without any interruption in the transcode of the AV data.