Surrogate Segment Streaming for Playback Gaps on Trains

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing streaming systems experience playback interruptions due to fluctuating network connections, especially in mobile environments, leading to a poor user experience without requiring modifications to the content player.

Innovation Solution

A streaming system that includes a streaming agent to proactively provide substitute media segments when connection quality is insufficient, using a cache server to store and manage media content, and a monitoring unit to determine connection quality, allowing seamless playback without player modifications.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Adaptability or versatility

If adaptive content streaming is used to adapt to connection quality, then playback quality adjusts dynamically, but playback interruptions occur when connection quality drops below minimum thresholds

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveadaptive quality adjustmentVSAvoidcontinuous playback

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary actions by detecting connection quality trends and proactively switching to lower quality representations before the connection completely fails. The streaming agent monitors bandwidth fluctuations and preemptively adjusts the playback quality to prevent interruptions, rather than waiting for buffer exhaustion or error conditions.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The system provides beforehand cushioning by maintaining multiple quality representations of the same content and having lower quality versions ready as backup. When connection quality degrades, the system has already prepared alternative streams that can be switched to without interruption, cushioning against the harmful effect of connection failure.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #11Beforehand cushioning (Prior cushioning)

2Ease of operation

If embedded cache servers are deployed in vehicles, then local content access is enabled, but playback interruptions occur when external CDN connection fails and required content is not locally cached

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvelocal content accessVSAvoidplayback continuity

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of operationVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The streaming agent performs preliminary actions by detecting when external CDN connection quality degrades and proactively switching to serve content from the local embedded cache, or generating synthetic content, before the connection completely fails. This prevents playback interruptions by anticipating connection failures in mobile environments.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The streaming agent acts as an intermediary between the content player and both the external CDN and local cache. It intelligently routes requests based on connection quality, switching between external and local sources seamlessly, and can generate synthetic content as a mediator when neither external nor local sources are available, ensuring continuous playback.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

3Reliability

If content player modifications are implemented to handle connection issues, then playback continuity can be improved, but device compatibility and ease of deployment are reduced

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveplayback continuityVSAvoidplayer modification requirements

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The streaming agent serves as an intermediary layer between the content player and the content delivery infrastructure. It handles all the complex logic for connection quality monitoring, quality switching, and synthetic content generation, while the existing content player remains unchanged. This approach improves playback continuity without requiring any modifications to the player software, maintaining device compatibility and ease of deployment.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

4Adaptability or versatility

If multiple quality representations are maintained for adaptive streaming, then quality adaptation is possible, but system complexity and bandwidth requirements increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvequality adaptation capabilityVSAvoidstreaming system complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system uses copying by generating synthetic content that replicates the essential characteristics of the original content without requiring storage of multiple complete quality representations. Instead of maintaining full copies of content at multiple qualities, the streaming agent creates on-demand synthetic versions, reducing storage and bandwidth requirements while preserving adaptability.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #26Copying

Data Source

PatentEP4668753A1Video streaming with surrogate segment in a shared transport environment

Publication Date: 2025.12.24 GRP CANAL

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AI summary

To prevent an on-board train content player from malfunctioning, a streaming agent 162 cooperates with a cache unit 161 to provide stored media segments, a manifest unit 169 to provide track description files 125 and driver manifest files 126, a monitoring unit 163 to determine the quality of a connection with an external source CDN, a description unit 165 to obtain a textual description of requested media segments, and a substitution unit 164 to obtain substitute segments, for example, by generative AI generation from the textual description and optionally other segments of the same media content. The streaming agent 162 substitutes a media segment requested by the player with a substitute segment when the connection quality with the external source CDN is insufficient to provide the original media segments.