Real-Time Streaming Protocol
The Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP ) is a network protocol for controlling the continuous transmission of audiovisual data (streams) or software over IP-based networks. With it, the session between the receiver and the server is controlled. RTSP is a text - based protocol that can be transmitted over UDP or TCP, and is similar in design and conduct HTTP. The protocol was developed by the IETF MMUSIC Group and standardized in RFC 2326 in 1998.
While in practice usually the Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP, RFC 3550, July 2003) is used to transmit real-time data (RTSP protocol is independent), the function of the RTSP is mainly in the control of the data streams; RTSP itself no user data to be transmitted, therefore RTSP is sometimes referred to as a " network remote control ". The control of the transmission is performed by the Real Time Control Protocol ( RTCP ).
RTSP is for multimedia data streams about what is HTTP for HTML documents; as opposed to HTTP but RTSP knows states and is bi-directional, that is both client and server can issue requests. Otherwise, the messages in Request ( to initialize a session) and response are divided ( to answer the request by a status message ) in RTSP as well as in HTTP.
The elements of a multimedia presentation are represented by the markup language Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language; defined ( SMIL SMIL 1.0 as of 1997, SMIL 2.0 from 2001), aggregated and synchronized in time.
RTSP -enabled streaming server include the Helix Server and QuickTime Streaming Server ( since 1999). A freely available implementation (GPL or LGPL ) is the ffserver from the FFmpeg project.
Next use the software company Microsoft since the takeover of softricity Inc. RTSP in their software distribution system App-V (formerly SoftGrid ) to stream applications from server to client so that the client can use the software as soon as possible, even if it is not yet completely downloaded.
Terminology
A variety of terms is used similar to HTTP during use of the RTSP.