Edge Caching: Transforming Entertainment While You Travel
Although blocking streaming is a solution to the challenges of ensuring a positive Wi-Fi experience for passengers, there is another way. Edge Caching.
Streaming Video on Planes: The Current Situation
In most cases, there is too little connectivity bandwidth available to aircraft, and at too high a cost, to support a large volume of streaming of HD, 4K, and HDR movies economically.
If a passenger wants to stream content onboard via connectivity the ability to do so is dependent upon the available bandwidth from the satellite provider, and the cost of that bandwidth to the airline is high. If a second passenger wants to watch the same movie a few minutes later this doubles bandwidth consumption and doubles the cost. A third viewer? Another stream, triple the bandwidth requirements and triple the cost.
Things are not much different with Starlink either. Since Starlink provides a LEO satellite network, content has to be streamed from the ground to each end point – individual device. The bandwidth today is still not sufficient for high quality content delivered to all passenger computers, seatback displays, and, as many of us bring multiple devices, to the second or third screen.
Add to that, an individual stream consumes up to 6Mbps for one viewer, so even a small portion of passengers trying to stream onboard can immediately consume all the available bandwidth—leaving everyone frustrated.
Inplay Edge: Edge Caching that Makes Onboard Streaming Feasible
Airlines and their IFEC partners now have an innovative new solution: Inplay Edge. Inplay Edge positions caching at the “edge” of the network, closer to the passenger. It allows the existing bandwidth to load content on the aircraft once—content is cached on the aircraft for subsequent users to access locally without costly internet connectivity.
The result: With Inplay Edge the stream from the first viewer is captured on the aircraft and stored locally, so that the second, third, etc. passengers are then streaming from the aircraft server. One-third the bandwidth, one-third the cost, and better quality.
A software only solution, Inplay Edge can be deployed anywhere. It’s scalable and works in very constrained computational environments. For example, if airlines are interested in hosting an edge node on an aircraft, or if a car, bus, or train manufacturer would like to bring it to the passengers, no problem.
Inplay Edge is built using Streaming Video Technology Association (SVTA) specifications making integration easy for content providers and operators. IdeaNova is currently supporting other companies in their interoperability tests through an SVTA workgroup.
The future of streaming is at the edge—now is the time to seize it!
How will your organization navigate the future of streaming? What opportunities does edge caching unlock for your streaming services?
If you’re ready to seize the potential of edge caching, we’re here to help. IdeaNova’s Inplay Edge provides a reliable edge caching solution, fully tailored to your business. Ready to get started? Call 408-807-3780 or email us at info@ideanovatech.com.