Transparent Overlay Browser for Streaming Media in Virtual Desktops
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Virtualized desktop environments face challenges in efficiently rendering streaming media due to increased network loads and computational demands, leading to scalability issues and inefficient use of content cache servers.
Innovation Solution
The system establishes a direct content transport session from content servers to client endpoint devices, bypassing the host device, allowing native encoding and reducing bandwidth consumption, while using policy agents to determine whether media should be rendered by the host or client browser, thereby minimizing computational loads on the host device.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Stability of the object's composition
If streaming media is rendered through the virtualized desktop host device, then integration and control are improved, but network bandwidth consumption increases and scalability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the media rendering function from the virtualized desktop host device and relocates it to the client endpoint device. The host device retains control functions (window management, policy decisions) while the client device handles computationally intensive media rendering, thereby reducing network bandwidth consumption and improving scalability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system segments the browser functionality into two parts: the host device runs a headless browser that handles control and policy decisions, while the client endpoint device runs a native browser that handles media rendering. This segmentation allows each component to operate independently with optimized resource usage.
2Ease of operation
If streaming media is rendered through the virtualized desktop host device, then centralized control is improved, but computational load on host device increases and productivity deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the computationally intensive media rendering workload from the host device and transfers it to the client endpoint device. The host device maintains centralized control through policy agents and window management, while the client device performs media rendering locally, thereby improving overall computational efficiency without sacrificing control.
Solution Approach 2:
The system segments computational tasks by having the host device handle control-plane functions (policy decisions, window management) and the client device handle data-plane functions (media rendering, playback). This segmentation improves productivity by matching computational tasks to appropriate devices.
3Stability of the object's composition
If content is delivered through the host device in virtualized desktop environment, then integration is improved, but network bandwidth usage increases and scalability worsens
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts content delivery from the host device and establishes direct delivery paths from content servers to client endpoint devices. This extraction reduces network bandwidth usage through the virtualized desktop infrastructure and improves scalability by allowing each client to receive content independently.
Solution Approach 2:
The host device acts as an intermediary for control functions (policy agents, window management) but not for content delivery. Policy agents on both host and client devices coordinate to determine rendering decisions, maintaining system integration while enabling direct content delivery to clients.
4Loss of energy
If all media rendering is performed on client endpoint devices, then network bandwidth usage is reduced, but integration and seamless rendering deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces policy agents as intermediaries that coordinate between the host device and client endpoint device. These agents exchange messages to make rendering decisions, ensuring that media rendering on client devices remains integrated with the virtualized desktop environment and achieves seamless rendering.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically determines whether each media element should be rendered on the host or client device based on policy decisions. This dynamic approach allows the system to optimize for both network bandwidth usage and seamless rendering on a per-content basis, rather than using a static rendering approach.
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques are provided for establishing an integrated and transparent overlay of a browser window for rendering data such as streaming media on a client endpoint device. A web browser on a Hosted Virtual Desktop (HVD) draws HVD display image comprising a browser window and communicates it to the client endpoint device for display, via a virtual desktop interface (VDI) protocol. The browser window comprises zero or more host-provided window elements such as a window frame and at least one placeholder element where a client-provided frameless browser window may be rendered. A browser (or browser extension) on the HVD works together with a browser server on the client endpoint device to render data such as streaming media in the client-provided frameless browser window in place of the placeholder, before displaying the frameless browser window and the HVD display as an integrated display at the client endpoint device.