This paper addresses the problem of streaming packetized media over a lossy packet network, in a rate-distortion optimized way. Out of all the packets that could be transmitted at a given transmission opportunity, we show which packets, if any, to transmit in order to meet a constraint while minimizing the end-to-end distortion. Furthermore, if the network supports multiple qualities of service, we show which quality of service to use for each transmitted packet to meet a cost constraint while minimizing the end-to-end distortion. Experimental results show that our system has steady-state gains of 3-7 dB or more over systems that do not have per-packet rate-distortion optimization.

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