Abstract: A system and method for recovering from data loss are described including monitoring a first bit rate video data bit stream to determine if there is frame loss or damage, multiplexing decoding parameters of a second bit rate video data bit stream, the second bit rate video data bit stream and the first bit rate video data bit stream, if there is frame loss or damage, demultiplexing the first bit rate video data bit stream and the second bit rate video data bit stream, decoding the first bit rate video data bit stream, removing damaged frames from the first bit rate video data bit stream, decoding the second bit rate video data bit stream, up-sampling frames from said processed second bit rate video data bit stream if said processed second bit rate video data bit stream has a lower resolution than said processed first bit rate video data bit stream and merging frames from the second bit rate video data bit stream and the first bit rate video data bit stream.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are provided for encoding video signal data for transmission in a network. The method includes the step of encoding the video signal data at a variable bit rate using at least one of a prioritized structure or a scalable coding structure to obtain a bitstream having a base layer and an enhancement layer. The encoding step encodes the video signal data such that a base layer bitrate is constrained to be less than or equal to a first value over a first time interval, and all of the bitstream, including the base layer and the enhancement layer, is constrained to a bitrate less than or equal to a second value over a second time interval.