MPEG-2 video communications over ATM networks is one of the most active research areas in the field of computer communications. In this paper, we introduce a set of control mechanisms at different levels of the protocol architecture to be used in MPEG-2-based video communications systems using ATM networks as their underlying transmission mechanism. We argue that in order to be able to create video systems able to cope with some of the errors encountered in computer communications systems, a structured set of error-resilient protocol mechanisms is needed. Our results show the effectiveness of using a structured set of control mechanisms to overcome for the loss of cells carrying VBR MPEG-2 video streams.