Dynamic programming across multiple streams

An apparatus comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• non-transitory memory including:
• logic configured to align sequences of one or more temporal segments such that time boundaries of temporal segments across the sequences are in alignment, wherein each sequence is associated with a respective one of a plurality of client devices sharing a network resource, and wherein each sequence is associated with an instance of a respective video stream, and the one or more temporal segments of each sequence are used to provide segment representations of media content data to one of the plurality of client devices;
• logic configured to select segment representations for each temporal segment, for each sequence, based on a combination of the sequence alignment and perceptual quality level values associated with available segment representations, wherein a combination of resulting perceptual quality levels satisfies a joint quality criterion across the sequences;
• and
• an interface to the shared network resource configured to meter a respective allocation of the shared network resource provided to each of the plurality of client devices based on the alignment of sequences and selected segment representations,
• wherein, in the logic configured to align the sequences, alignment of time boundaries of temporal segments across the sequences is achieved at least in part by adjusting the data size of at least some of the temporal segments.