Methods for distributing server side application computing resources and associated systems and devices

An in-flight entertainment (IFE) system, the IFE system comprising:

• an IFE headend server;
• and
• a plurality of seat-based compute resources, each operably coupled to the IFE headend server, wherein the IFE headend server and/or the plurality of seat-based compute resources include
• one or more processors configured to:
• determine real-time and anticipated excess compute capacities of the plurality of seat-based compute resources, wherein determining comprises accessing a manifest file stored on the IFE system and configured to monitor the plurality of seat-based compute resources, and wherein determining the anticipated excess compute capacities of the plurality of seat-based compute resources comprises analyzing historical compute resource usage data associated with a current flight route;
• identify one or more compute resources among the plurality of seat-based compute resources based on the one or more compute resources having real-time and/or anticipated excess compute capacities above a threshold;
• form one or more compute clusters, wherein the identified one or more compute resources and the IFE headend server form cluster nodes of the one or more compute clusters;
• obtain an allocation scheme, wherein the allocation scheme defines a distribution of computational tasks among the cluster nodes of the one or more compute clusters;
• and
• assign the computational tasks to the cluster nodes of the one or more compute clusters based at least in part on the obtained allocation scheme.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions configured to cause one or more processors of an in-flight entertainment (IFE) system to perform a method, the method comprising:

• determining real-time and anticipated excess compute capacities of a plurality of compute resources in the IFE system, wherein determining comprises accessing a manifest file stored on the IFE system and configured to monitor the plurality of compute resources, and wherein determining the anticipated excess compute capacities of the plurality of compute resources comprises analyzing historical compute resource usage data associated with a current flight route;
• identifying one or more compute resources among the plurality of compute resources based on the one or more compute resources having real-time and/or anticipated excess compute capacities above a threshold;
• forming one or more compute clusters, wherein the identified one or more compute resources and a headend server of the IFE system form cluster nodes of the one or more compute clusters;
• obtaining an allocation scheme, wherein the allocation scheme defines a distribution of computational tasks among the cluster nodes of the one or more compute clusters;
• and
• assigning the computational tasks to the cluster nodes of the one or more compute clusters based at least in part on the obtained allocation scheme.