DASH

Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP.

DASH is an adaptive bitrate streaming technique that enables high quality streaming of media content over the Internet delivered from conventional HTTP web servers.

The content is made available at a variety of different bit rates, i.e., alternative segments encoded at different bit rates covering aligned short intervals of playback time. While the content is being played back by an MPEG-DASH client, the client automatically selects from the alternatives the next segment to download and play based on current network conditions. The client automatically selects the segment with the highest bit rate possible that can be downloaded in time for playback without causing stalls or re-buffering events in the playback.

 

Source: Wikipedia