Patent ID: 8659990
Filing Date: 2014-02-25
Classification: H04B,H04L,H04N

Abstract:
1. An inflight entertainment system, comprising: a plurality of head end line replaceable units physically interconnected in a ring configuration; and a plurality of serially-connected networking line replaceable units physically interconnected in a serial configuration, wherein two of the serially-connected networking line replaceable units at the edge of the serial configuration are physically interconnected with two of the head end line replaceable units, respectively, wherein a loop-free head end data path is maintained between active head end line replaceable units by regulating link participation in the head end data path, and wherein one or more loop-free serially-connected networking data paths are maintained between at least one of the two head end line replaceable units and active networking line replaceable units by regulating link participation in the serially-connected networking data paths, the loop-free serially-connected networking data paths being maintained by removing a selected link from a previous serially-connected networking data path, the selected link being selected using hop count information.