arXiv.org
IAR: An Interaction-Aware Approach to Post-Seek Recovery in Adaptive HLS Streaming
After an unbuffered seek, an adaptive bitrate (ABR) player has little forward buffer at the new position, while its controller may retain a bandwidth estimate from earlier downloads. An expensive first request can delay resumption; later requests may interrupt playback while the buffer rebuilds. We introduce Interaction-Aware Recovery (IAR), a temporary layer around the hls.js ABR controller. After an unbuffered seek, IAR discounts the inherited estimate (γ=0.15) to set a representation ceiling. Normal adaptation continues below it until 8 s of forward buffer has been rebuilt. In a 200-run paired study spanning four network profiles, ten seek positions, and five strategies, a conservative first request reduced resume delay by a paired median of 2.008 s relative to standard hls.js. Keeping a low ceiling through recovery reduced later interruption under stronger degradation but lowered early presented bitrate. IAR and Fixed-Low-Recovery both used L0 in this campaign, so the results did n
