This illustration uses a series of numbered boxes in several layers to illustrate the piggybacking of lower-quality redundant information. The topmost layer is labeled "Original stream" and includes four boxes labeled (from left to right), 1, 2, 3, and 4. Below 1 is a second box labeled 1; below 2 is a box shaped like a long rectangle that has been divided into two sections, labeled 1 and 2; below 3 is a similar box labeled 2 and 3; and below 4 is a similar box labeled 3 and 4. This layer is labeled "Redundancy." An arrow extends downward from 1 in the original stream to 1 in the redundancy stream; a second arrow extends from original 1 to redundancy 1 below original 2. This pattern continues across: arrows extend from original 2 to both redundancy 2s, from 3 to 3s, and from original 4 to redundancy 4.

Below the redundancy layer is a cloud, and below the cloud is a layer labeled "Received stream." A dashed arrow extends downward from redundancy 1 to a box labeled 1 in the received stream, through the cloud. Similarly, a dashed arrow extends down from the box labeled 1 and 2 in the redundancy layer to a box labeled 1 and 2 in the received stream layer, passing through the cloud. A dashed arrow extends from redundancy 2 and 3 through the cloud and to a gray box labeled "Loss." And a dashed arrow extends from redundancy 3 and 4 to received stream 3 and 4.

Below this the last layer, labeled "Reconstructed stream." An arrow points from 1 in received to 1 in reconstructed; from 1 and 2 in received to 2 in reconstructed; from 3 in the box labeled 3 and 4 in the received stream to one labeled 3 in the reconstructed stream; and from 4 in 3 and 4 in the received stream to one labeled 4 in the reconstructed stream.