Embodiments are provided herein for a system and methods for real-time video (or other real-time traffic) delivery, e.g., for cellular or wireless networks. The schemes herein address real-time video delivery by a joint design of the radio resource scheduler and the video encoder at the network side, and of the decoder at the users' terminals. The system design reduces frame loss and hence improves user quality of experience. In an embodiment, a radio node detects a frame of a real-time traffic flow. Upon determining that a transmission deadline corresponding to a rate for real-time traffic flow does not support a size of the frame, the transmission deadline is extended according to the size of the frame and a size of a next frame. The frame and the next frame are scheduled for forwarding within the extended transmission deadline.