CODEWITHSUNDEEP
httpstreamingprotocolsnetwork-protocolsmpeg-dash
user5111189
user5111189

Reputation:

What's the point of streaming over HTTP (MPEG-DASH)?

I was reading about streaming-over-HTTP technologies such as MPEG-DASH but don't really get the point. As I understand it, such protocols divide up the binary data in the media file into chunks, wraps each chunk in some kind of metadata, then stuffs these into HTTP messages and sends them to the client.

But what's the point of implementing this on top of HTTP instead of just implementing/creating a separate application layer protocol? Doesn't this just introduce more overhead and unnecessarily complicate the encoding/decoding process?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 312

Answers (1)

Malt
Malt

Reputation: 30335

Transporting stuff over HTTP isn't done for the sake of efficiency since it's obviously inefficient. HTTP itself (at least until HTTP 2.0) is horribly inefficient.

The main reasons for using HTTP are simplicity, interoperability and re-usability. It's simple to understand and implement, it already exists in both servers and clients; plus it's well known by networks so it can easily pass through firewalls.

Upvotes: 1

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