  Today's networks are controlled assuming pre-compressed and packetized data.
For video, this assumption of data packets abstracts out one of the key aspects
- the lossy compression problem. Therefore, first, this paper develops a
framework for network control that incorporates both source-rate and
source-distortion. Next, it decomposes the network control problem into an
application-layer compression control, a transport-layer congestion control and
a network-layer scheduling. It is shown that this decomposition is optimal for
concave utility functions. Finally, this paper derives further insights from
the developed rate-distortion framework by focusing on specific problems.
