Server diversity in rate-distortion optimized media streaming

We consider diversity for media streaming in a receiver-driven rate-distortion optimization framework. Diversity is achieved by requesting media packets from multiple servers. A framework is proposed that enables the receiver to decide at every instant which packets, if any, to request for transmission and from which servers in order to meet a rate constraint while minimizing the end-to-end distortion. Experimental results demonstrate the benefit of exploiting server diversity in rate-distortion optimized receiver-driven streaming of packetized media.