An apparatus includes at least one processor; and at least one non-transitory memory including computer program code; wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform: encode or decode a high-level bitstream syntax for at least one neural network; wherein the high-level bitstream syntax comprises at least one information unit having metadata or compressed neural network data of a portion of the at least one neural network; and wherein a serialized bitstream comprises one or more of the at least one information unit.