TCP is short for Transmission Control Protocol and is how the world guarantees delivery of data on a network. It’s a way for computers to help ensure data travels from one place to another wholly. The protocol uses a series of messages to set up communication between two devices.

The way two devices begin communicating is with the three-way handshake. It consists of the Syn (This is the beginning of synchronization), the Ack (this is acknowledgment that I’ve received the Syn), and the SynAck (which is the combination of the Syn from earlier and the Ack).

Using this session, TCP continues to keep track of data sent with sequence numbers and acknowledgments. The computers keep track of the data! If something is missing, it is resent to make sure the data transmits the wire. This is ideal for data transmissions where integrity is vital. However, when delivering live data this is not conducive to the timeliness required. The reason why? Think of a cell phone call you’ve had. If the data wasn’t there and it was retransmitted, your conversation of, “Sue went down to the store!” would turn into “Sue wen down to the store! WENT”. The error correction makes no sense in a conversation. The same thing applies to digital TV solutions. So, what else could we use?

Q: “Do you want to hear a UDP joke?”

A: “Yes!”

Q: “Do you want to hear a UDP joke?”

UDP is a great medium for transmitting data in real-time. But therein lies the problem. Our clients care about data integrity AND data in real-time.

So, we’ve got two mediums that provide both solutions for us. Aside from rewriting the stack on our own and getting it to the rest of the world, there must be another answer. We need to solve for X. How do we get the integrity of TCP with the speed and real-time processing of UDP? It’s impossible. Or is it? We get close to perfection by utilizing newer technology in the market. 

SRT stands for Secure Reliable Transport. It is an open-source protocol that combines the best of both worlds from TCP and UDP. SRT offers low latency, high bandwidth utilization, and secure data transfer, making it an ideal protocol for live video streaming, file transfers, and other real-time data applications.

It is a heavily modified version of the UDT protocol. UDT is an application-level, connection-oriented duplex protocol that supports both reliable data streaming and partial reliable messaging (think TCP over UDP). SRT solves the problem by adapting in real-time to the conditions that exist between two endpoints. Using an overhead, it can burst traffic through the same pipe as its standard transmission to create a sort of “carpool lane” for the traffic that was missed.

SRT uses end-to-end encryption to protect data in transit, ensuring that only authorized parties can access the information. It also employs forward error correction and retransmission algorithms to guarantee data integrity and minimize the impact of network jitter and packet loss.

Designed to be highly adaptive and can adjust to changing network conditions in real-time. It can dynamically optimize the flow of data based on the available bandwidth and latency of the network. This makes it a highly reliable protocol for live video streaming and other applications that require consistent and low-latency data delivery.

One of the unique features of SRT is its ability to traverse firewalls and other network barriers without requiring additional setup or configuration. This makes it a highly scalable protocol that can be used across a wide range of network environments.

In conclusion, SRT is an innovative solution to the problem of balancing data integrity with real-time processing. It combines the best of both TCP and UDP to provide a highly adaptive, secure, and reliable protocol for live video streaming, file transfers, and other real-time data applications.