an entertainment system that exhibits advantages of fiber - to - the - seat systems , has improved failure recovery characteristics , and reduces the connection components is disclosed . in one aspect , an inflight entertainment system comprises 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 serially - connected networking line replaceable units by regulating link participation in the serially - connected networking data paths .