Joint quality management across multiple streams

A computer program product, embedded on a non-transitory computer readable medium, including instructions that when executed by a processor cause a device to operate to:

• obtain a plurality of resource constraint values associated with a plurality of client devices sharing a network resource, wherein each respective resource constraint value characterizes a limiting rate at which media content data can be provided to a particular client device;
• determine a respective encoding rate level and a corresponding resource allocation for each of the plurality of client devices based on a combination of the one or more resource constraint values and the assessment of the respective perceptual quality level values, wherein a combination of resulting quality levels satisfies a joint quality criterion;
• and
• reallocate a portion of the network resource from a first one of the plurality of client devices to a second one of the plurality of client devices in order to satisfy the joint quality criterion.

An apparatus comprising:

• logic configured to obtain a plurality of resource constraint values associated with a plurality of client devices sharing a network resource, wherein each respective resource constraint value characterizes a limiting rate at which media content data can be provided to a particular client device;
• logic configured to jointly determine a respective encoding rate level and a corresponding resource allocation for each of the plurality of client devices based on a combination of the one or more resource constraint values and the assessment of the respective perceptual quality level values, wherein a combination of resulting quality levels satisfies a joint quality criterion;
• and
• logic configured to reallocate a portion of the network resource from a first one of the plurality of client devices to a second one of the plurality of client devices in order to satisfy the joint quality criterion.