We examine the performance of multiple descriptions coding (MDC) with and without the use of automatic retransmission request (ARQ) protocols for packet network communication. The rate-distortion lower bound of MDC and layered coding (LC) are incorporated into a performance measure that accounts for the additional costs of excess rates and delay incurred from using ARQ. Results show that unaided MDC is the best for large packet loss rates and large delay, and LC is the best for small loss and moderate delay. In between these two extremes, MDC aided by ARQ provides the best performance