What is the SRT Protocol?
By Jennifer P
The blog post introduces the Secure Reliable Transport Protocol (SRT), a royalty-free, open-source video streaming transport protocol designed to deliver secure low-latency streaming performance over unpredictable networks, such as the public internet. SRT employs an intelligent packet retransmit mechanism called ARQ on top of a UDP data flow to protect against packet loss and ensure the quality of live video.
The increasing use of video in various sectors, including business, government, education, and defense, has led to a growing demand for high-quality, low-latency live videos. SRT takes inspiration from UDP’s low latency and enhances it with error-checking to match the reliability of TCP/IP. This allows SRT to specifically address the requirements of high-performance video, making it an attractive option for enterprise and government end-users.
One notable application of SRT is its potential to replace the Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP), a TCP-based streaming protocol commonly used for live streaming video. Unlike RTMP, SRT is codec agnostic and can stream any type of video content. This flexibility positions SRT as a versatile solution for streaming distribution tools, particularly in scenarios where low-latency video delivery is crucial.
For Contribution Quality Video Transport over IP
The benefits of using the SRT protocol are highlighted in the blog post. SRT supports pristine quality video by protecting against jitter, packet loss, and bandwidth fluctuations. It achieves low latency by combining the reliability of TCP/IP delivery with the speed of UDP. Security is ensured through industry-standard AES 128/256-bit encryption, providing end-to-end protection. SRT facilitates the leveraging of the public internet for expanded streaming applications, ensuring interoperability, and is open source, contributing to cost-effective, interoperable, and future-proof solutions.
Common applications of SRT include remote broadcasting, online video platforms, content delivery networks, enterprise video content management systems, and internet streaming infrastructure companies. The blog post also mentions the SRT Alliance, established in 2017, as a community of industry leaders and developers supporting the free availability and collaborative development of the SRT protocol. Matrox Video, the author of the post, is a member of the SRT Alliance and endorses the use of SRT.
Read the full blog post from Matrox HERE
Learn more about Matrox HERE