Client/server signaling commands for dash

A media server operable to provide hyper-text transfer protocol (HTTP) adaptive streaming, wherein the media server comprises:

• a transceiver configured to:
• send a server-availability communication to a plurality of clients indicating that the media server will go offline at a specified time;
• send an upload-rate communication to the plurality of clients to indicate a change in an upload rate for the media server;
• send a new-server communication to the plurality of clients to indicate when a new server is available, the new server having at least one representation in common with a Media Presentation Description (MPD) file at the media server;
• send an MPD-change communication from the media server to the plurality of clients indicating when at least one change has been made to the MPD file at the media server to enable the media server to efficiently deliver the HTTP adaptive streaming;
• and
• one or more processors configured to:
• associate an available representation code (ARC) with the representations that are available on the media server, the ARC comprising a binary string wherein each bit corresponds to a representation of the representations that are available on the media server;
• identify Quality of Experience (QoE) information received from the plurality of clients;
• deactivate a representation with a highest bitrate for one or more clients to ensure fair QoE;
• and
• dynamically update the ARC using the QoE information sent by the plurality of clients,
• wherein the transceiver is further configured to send a segment availability code (SAC) to the plurality of clients, wherein the SAC is a binary string wherein each bit corresponds to an availability of a segment in a representation of a media presentation description (MPD) metafile;
• and
• in response to the plurality of clients receiving the SAC, the plurality of clients request the segment from an alternative media server when the SAC indicates that the segment is unavailable.