Glossary

Temporal scalability is scalability in terms of frame rate, meaning that a given bit stream includes different sub-streams each with a different frame rate.

For instance, an H.264 SVC bitstream with temporal scalability can have 3 layers: base layer of 15 frames per second, 1st enhancement layer of 30 frames per second, and a 2nd enhancement layer of 60 frames per second.

Temporal scalability has significant value in terms of error resiliency, as in case a frame is not complete for any reason (packet loss, corruption), the decoder can choose a lower layer of temporal scalability, lowering the frame rate but maintaining the quality.