Adaptive Forward Error Correction (AFEC) based Streaming using RTSP and RTP

Abstract

Real Time streaming Protocol (RTSP) is the de facto standard for streaming and almost all the set up boxes and media players support it. RTSP is a very simple text based protocol for streaming. And this simplicity is one of the main reasons for the popularity of the protocol. We propose the use of RTSP along with Real Time Protocol (RTP) for Adaptive Forward Error Correction (AFEC) based streaming. The idea is to use the existing semantics of the protocol with minimal overloading to achieve the goal. The use of the RTP is solely to provide a mechanism for the packet sequence number, which is the main requirement to ensure reliability. Since, we will be using existing protocol semantics (overloading the existing semantics), we do not have the luxury of using Negative Acknowledgements (NACKs) or information rich packet headers. However, we can add the intelligence in the client/server to interpret the overloaded data and achieve the same results.