HP-UX Multimedia Streaming Protocols (MSP) Programmer's Guide

1 Introduction
This chapter presents an overview of the Multimedia Streaming Protocols (MSP)
Software Developer’s Kit (SDK) and its supported features on your HP-UX 11i v1,
HP-UX 11i v2, and HP-UX 11i v3 operating systems.
This chapter discusses the following topics:
• “MSP Overview” (page 13)
• “Files Provided with the MSP SDK” (page 16)
MSP Overview
MSP enables you to transfer audio and video files to a remote location in real time.
Streaming multimedia data is a transaction between the server and client. The client,
such as RealPlayer or Winamp, is a user application that accesses the media. The server
is an application that provides all the client applications with the multimedia content.
Unlike the download-and-play mechanism, the multimedia streaming client starts
playing the media packets as soon as they arrive, without holding back to receive the
entire file. While this technology reduces the client’s storage requirements and startup
time for the media to be played, it introduces a strict timing relationship between the
server and the client.
MSP defines the transaction that is used to establish a connection and transmit the
media from the server and client. The HP-UX MSP SDK uses the following suite of
protocols:
• Real-Time Protocol (RTP)
• Real-Time Control Protocol (RTCP)
• Real-Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP)
• Session Description Protocol (SDP)
The MSP framework for HP-UX multimedia streaming servers comprises libraries
required for implementing these protocols and transmitting real-time data. These
libraries use underlying transport mechanisms, such as TCP and UDP, to deliver
services. The MSP implementation on HP-UX offers high performance and enables
you to take advantage of the scalability, reliability, and high availability of the HP-UX
operating system.
The MSP SDK conforms to the following RFCs:
• RFC 1889 – RTP: A Transport Protocol for Real-Time Applications
• RFC 2326 – Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP)
• RFC 2327 – SDP: Session Description Protocol
Multimedia Streaming Architecture
Figure 1-1 illustrates the architecture of a typical multimedia streaming setup.
MSP Overview 13