Apparatus and method for adaptive layer selection and server having the same

An adaptive layer selecting method comprising:

• monitoring a connection state of at least one channel connected through a communication network;
• detecting available channels to be used for providing a service based on a result of the monitoring;
• and
• determining the number of adaptive layers to be used for encoding based on bandwidths of changed available channels when the number of the available channels is changed.

An adaptive layer selecting method by a server, the method comprising:

• monitoring a connection state of at least one channel connected through a communication network by an adaptive layer selecting unit;
• determining whether the number of available channels based on a result of the monitoring and determining the number of adaptive layers to be used for encoding by the adaptive layer selecting unit;
• transferring the adaptive layer number to an encoder by the adaptive layer selecting unit;
• and
• performing encoding based on the adaptive layer number by encoder.