ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP

Okay kiddo, have you ever watched a video on your tablet or computer? Well, when you watch a video, it needs to be sent from a server to your device. But sometimes, the internet gets slow and the video can't load fast enough. That's when dynamic adaptive streaming over http (DASH) comes in handy.

DASH is a way of sending videos to your device so that you can watch them without any buffering or interruption. It works by breaking the video into small chunks called segments. Each segment is a little piece of the video that can be sent separately.

Now, let's imagine that you're watching a video. The video starts playing and you're enjoying it, but then your internet slows down and the video stops playing. That's when DASH comes in to save the day. DASH looks at how fast your internet is going and it changes the size of each segment to match your internet speed.

So, if your internet is slow, DASH will send smaller segments to your device. This means that the video will be choppy and some of the quality might be lost, but at least it will keep playing. If your internet is fast, DASH will send bigger segments, so the video will be clearer and smoother.

In this way, DASH adapts to your internet speed and sends segments that are just the right size for your device. It's like if you were playing with blocks and you wanted to build a tower. If the blocks were too big, it would be hard to build the tower. But if the blocks were just the right size, you could build a nice, tall tower without any problems.

So, that's what dynamic adaptive streaming over http does. It makes sure that the videos you watch are always playing smoothly and without any buffering, no matter how slow or fast your internet is.