Video Streams and TCP Connections (2024)

Introduction

To manage the efficiency of the network connections used in video streaming, it is important to be able to view the number of separate TCP connections for a given video, and whether they are persistent or not.

Background

TCP stands for Transport Control Protocol. You will often see it referred to along with the related Internet Protocol, as TCP/IP, which is at the center of all Internet traffic. TCP is used by many of the most popular applications on the internet, including streaming media applications.

TCP is a connection-oriented, end-to-end reliable protocol which supports multi-network applications. TCP is able to operate above a wide spectrum of communication systems ranging from hard-wired connections to packet-switched or circuit-switched networks.

Because TCP was designed with a series of requests and responses to verify file transfers, it is ideal for applications that need guaranteed delivery. It provides handling for both timeouts and retransmissions, by establishing virtual connection between two endpoints. Each endpoint is defined by an IP address and a TCP port number.

The Issue

Like so many other issues in video streaming, managing the type and number of TCP connections is a balancing act.

Creating more TCP streams to send video will give the client more flexibility to choose the best quality based on the available bitrate and display capabilities.

However, each different version adds additional complexity to the process, and may require more organization of media files. The added complexity may be worth the extra work, but it is good to examine the results to know if your strategy is successful.

An example of the added complexity of spreading delivery of one video over more than one TCP connection is that each additional video file needs to be tracked, and each needs to be stored.

Best Practice Recommendation

It is a good practice to understand how efficiently you are using TCP connections to stream video.

When determining streaming efficiency in relationship to TCP, two questions arise:

  1. How many separate TCP connections are being used for a single video?
  2. What kind of TCP connections do you have?

Using more than one connection may offer some load balancing opportunities, and can give the streaming client more flexibility to choose the best quality based on the available bitrate and display capabilities.

However, each additional connection adds additional complexity and may not improve delivery. It is also good to be aware if your connections are persistent or not. Sending small video segment (chunks) over non-persistent connections can result in more overhead because of the need to establish a TCP connection to the server after each segment.

Each video file is unique and every situation is different. It is up to the developer, video producer, or content provider, to experiment and determine the most efficient approach.

To help you make the right choices for your app, the Video Optimizer will determine (1) if video segments are being sent over one TCP connection or multiple connections, and (2) whether TCP connections carrying your video are persistent, or non-persistent.

Video and other types of rich media are on the rise in mobile apps and in the future we plan on offering more guidance on streaming and other video technology in our Mobile Development Best Practices recommendations.

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Video Streams and TCP Connections (2024)

FAQs

Can TCP be used for video streaming? ›

TCP is used by many of the most popular applications on the internet, including streaming media applications. TCP is a connection-oriented, end-to-end reliable protocol which supports multi-network applications.

Does video streaming use TCP or UDP? ›

On the other hand, UDP is typically used for live streaming and multicast video conferencing. Such applications normally require their own protocol (commonly RTP/RTCP over UDP) on top of UDP.

Does TCP support streams? ›

It is a full-duplex protocol, meaning that each TCP connection supports a pair of byte streams, one flowing in each direction. It also includes a flow-control mechanism for each of these byte streams that allows the receiver to limit how much data the sender can transmit at a given time.

Is TCP IP good for streaming? ›

If your streaming efforts aren't time-sensitive, TCP can be advantageous for enabling the full bandwidth of a network and ensuring enhanced reliability. That's why Netflix uses TCP. If you're live streaming UDP is considered the preferred protocol.

Is Netflix using TCP or UDP? ›

"Netflix uses TCP because TCP is much time-sensitive and does not require port forwarding. It helps to enable the full bandwidth of the network. We can compress more data at once in TCP and also reloaded data packets do not pose a problem. It also ensures higher video quality and fewer network congestion problems.

What protocol does video streaming use? ›

In plain terms, when you set up your encoder to send your video feed to your streaming platform, that video will reach the platform via the RTMP protocol. That content eventually reaches the end viewer in another protocol, usually HLS. RTMP is used together with other video streaming protocols.

Can you send video over TCP? ›

Firstly Video streaming is possible using both the protocols i.e UDP(User datagram protocol) and TCP(transmission control protocol). Some insight about both the protocols: TCP is a connection-oriented transport protocol which runs in the end systems and not in routers.

Is RTSP over TCP or UDP? ›

RTSP uses a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connection for control of the streaming media session, although it is also possible to use UDP for this purpose.

Why TCP is not suitable for multimedia application? ›

TCP is not suitable for real-time applications as the retransmissions can lead to high delay and cause delay jitter, which significantly degrades the quality. In addition, it does not support multicast. Also, congestion control mechanisms, namely slow start, are not suitable for audio or video media transmission.

Can TCP do broadcast? ›

TCP does not support broadcasting. UDP supports broadcasting. TCP is heavy-weight, requiring three packets to set up a socket connection before sending data. UDP is lightweight, with no tracking connections, ordering of messages, etc.

Why is TCP called stream? ›

TCP is stream oriented because it is able to assemble data in contiguous format. E.g. you had data from number 1 to 4000 bytes. Now it will be divided into tcp segments where each segment would have a sequence number say first is 1-1200 byte, second is 1201 - 2400 and so on.

Which protocol is best for streaming? ›

HTTP Live Streaming or HLS is an adaptive bitrate streaming communication protocol and is one of the most popular streaming protocols that combines HTML5-based video playback and produces one of the best live streaming experiences by dynamically adapting to network conditions depending on the connection speeds.

Should I use UDP or TCP for streaming VPN? ›

UDP is mainly used for online streaming and downloading. TCP is more reliable but also slightly slower than UDP and is mainly used for web browsing.

What does TCP stream mean? ›

TCP is a byte stream based protocol and there is no inherent encoding of the data bytes other than the fact the bytes must be in "Network Byte Order" (this is the same as "Big-Endian" in traditional computing terminology).

Is TCP a stream protocol? ›

In contrast, TCP is a stream-oriented protocol, transporting streams of bytes reliably and in order. However TCP does not allow the receiver to know how many times the sender application called on the TCP transport passing it groups of bytes to be sent out.

Can you broadcast with TCP? ›

You do not broadcast messages via TCP. It is a point-to-point connection-oriented protocol. If you want to broadcast via UDP, you slap a broadcast (or multicast) address on as the destination and let fly.

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