Vehicle Router Caching for Bandwidth-Constrained Media Streaming
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current systems for receiving streaming media on moving vehicles, such as trains, face challenges with bandwidth constraints, signal degradation due to metal fuselage and poor wireless infrastructure, leading to low-quality and costly media streaming experiences, especially during high-demand events like live news or sporting events.
Innovation Solution
A wireless communication system for moving vehicles that includes a router with a local proxy server and cache, which checks for available streaming media segments, forwards cached segments to clients, downloads and caches segments when needed, and optimizes data links for efficient bandwidth use, allowing seamless distribution of streaming media to multiple users.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If streaming media is delivered directly over wireless network to multiple users on a moving vehicle, then each user can access external content providers, but bandwidth is quickly exhausted and service quality degrades
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple user requests for the same content into a single wireless connection to the external content provider. The router consolidates traffic from multiple clients, establishing one or few external connections that serve all users, thereby preserving bandwidth while maintaining versatility.
Solution Approach 2:
The router creates local copies of content data received from external providers and distributes these copies to multiple clients. Instead of each user consuming bandwidth independently, the system downloads content once and replicates it locally for distribution, eliminating redundant bandwidth consumption.
2Reliability
If external antennas and repeaters are used to improve signal penetration through metal fuselage, then communication coverage is improved, but system complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The router performs multiple functions: it acts as a wireless client to external networks, a content distributor to internal clients, and a cache server. This multi-functionality eliminates the need for separate repeaters and antennas, reducing system complexity while maintaining reliable communication through the vehicle fuselage.
3Manufacturing precision
If high bitrate streaming is provided to maintain quality, then user experience improves, but bandwidth consumption increases and becomes unsustainable on mobile networks
Solution Approach 1:
The router pre-loads content from external providers into its cache before users request it. By performing the download action in advance when bandwidth is available, the system enables high-quality streaming without consuming excessive bandwidth during actual user consumption, as local cache serves subsequent requests.
4Ease of operation
If multiple independent wireless connections are established for each user, then individual user performance is optimized, but total bandwidth consumption exceeds available capacity
Solution Approach 1:
The router serves as an intermediary between external content providers and internal users. It establishes a single connection to the external network and redistributes content to multiple users internally, mediating between the need for individual user access and the constraint of total bandwidth availability.
Data Source
AI summary
A method and a system for receiving streaming media from an external provider onboard a moving vehicle via wireless communication is disclosed. The method includes: checking, upon a request from a client device to obtain a streaming media from said external provider, whether a segment of said streaming media is available in the cache or not; forwarding, when a segment of the requested streaming media is available in the cache, the segment of the streaming media object to the client device from the cache; downloading, when the segment of the requested streaming media is not available in the cache, the segment of the streaming media object from the external server, and forwarding the downloaded segment to the client device, and storing the segment in the cache.