Virtualized Interactive TV Services for Legacy Set-Top Boxes
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Solution Overview
Problem
Legacy set-top boxes and similar devices lack the processing power and graphical capabilities to support advanced interactive TV and video-on-demand services due to resource limitations, necessitating a solution that allows these services to be rendered remotely while maintaining a seamless user experience.
Innovation Solution
A virtualized application service system is implemented, where interactive TV and VOD applications are hosted on a server, allowing thin-client devices to emulate local execution by using virtual machines and containers, and employing a smart-graphics-&-media-proxy to separate rendering and application functionality, reducing bandwidth and memory requirements.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Power
If applications are run locally on legacy set-top boxes, then processing power and graphical capabilities are available, but resource limitations prevent support for advanced interactive TV and VOD services
Solution Approach 1:
A server acts as an intermediary between the legacy set-top box and advanced services. The server virtualizes applications and streams them to the client device, enabling legacy devices to access modern services without local processing power. The server handles computation-intensive tasks while the client provides basic playback functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of running applications directly on the legacy device, virtual copies of applications are created and executed on a server. The server then streams the application interface and audio/video content to the client, allowing the legacy device to display and interact with modern applications through copied virtual instances.
2Ease of operation
If video content is streamed to client devices, then remote playback is enabled, but bandwidth requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
Video content is divided into segments with associated digests. Instead of streaming entire video files, the system transmits only essential metadata (digests) to the client, which can then request and playback specific segments as needed. This segmentation reduces initial bandwidth consumption while enabling on-demand content delivery.
Solution Approach 2:
The system extracts only the necessary video segments and their digests for transmission to the client device. Full video content remains on the server, and only minimal data required for playback control and delivery is transmitted over the network, significantly reducing bandwidth requirements compared to traditional full-streaming approaches.
3Adaptability or versatility
If applications are virtualized on a server, then thin-client devices can access advanced services, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The server implements a universal virtualization platform that can host multiple different applications and services simultaneously. This multi-functional approach allows a single server system to provide diverse interactive TV and VOD services to multiple clients, reducing the need for separate specialized systems and simplifying overall infrastructure.
4Productivity
If GPU overlay instructions are sent asynchronously from frame rate, then rendering efficiency improves, but synchronization challenges arise
Solution Approach 1:
GPU overlay instructions are prepared and sent in advance of when they are needed for rendering. By pre-processing and transmitting overlay data before the actual frame rendering occurs, the system ensures that synchronization information is already available when frames are composed, maintaining reliability without compromising the asynchronous efficiency benefits.
Data Source
AI summary
The server system receives, from a respective remote physical client device, a digest of a segment of video content received by the respective remote physical client device, the segment of video content including a plurality of frames of video content. In response to receiving the digest, the server system sends a playback command to the respective remote physical device to playback one or more of the plurality of frames of video content in the segment. The plurality of frames of video content in the segment have a frame rate. The server system determines a graphical processing unit (GPU) overlay instruction for overlaying content of a frame buffer with a respective portion of the segment of video content and sends, asynchronously from the frame rate of the plurality of frames of video content, the GPU overlay instruction to the respective remote physical client device.