Real-time streaming protocol:
As with SIP (which is used for signaling, while RTP is used for the transport of the media), the streams controlled by RTSP may use any transport protocol; in many cases, they also use RTP. The protocol is intentionally similar in syntax and operation to HTTP and uses the same syntax.
The most common RTSP methods (commands) are (C-Client, S-Server).
Command |
Direction |
Function |
OPTIONS |
C to S or S to C |
Determines the capabilities of the server/client |
DESCRIBE |
C to S |
Gets a description of the media stream |
GET_PARAMETERS |
C to S |
Retrieves the value for parameters in the URI |
ANNOUNCE |
C to S or S to C |
Announces a new session's description |
SETUP |
C to S |