NETW320

Real-Time Transport Protocol
Real-Time Transport Protocol, more simply known as RTP, is a two part standard of how to manage real-time transmissions of multimedia data across a network. This two part standard first contains RTP, which is responsible for data transport and flow. The second half is Real-Time Control Protocol (RTCP) which is the control portion that monitors RTP transmission, collects data and compensates for lost packets and jitter, as well as handles Quality of Service (QoS). In general RTP is run over the User Datagram Protocol (UDP), but it is capable of running over other protocols such as TCP as well.

With today’s converged networks and their inclusion of VoIP and the heavy use of the Session Initiation Protocol or SIP, it is easy to understand why RTP is utilized. When you look into the relationship between RTP and SIP, you can clearly see that SIP relies on RTP. To fully understand their relation, we can break it down. First you have SIP. This protocol is responsible for setting up the connection from end to end. Once the connection is established, RTP takes over to transmit the data stream. While both SIP and RTP serve different functions all together, they rely on each other to send and receive the voice streams at either end. VoIP, however, is not the only use for RTP. It is used for a variety of audio and/or video streaming and its core design allows for the ability to support a plethora of formats, as well as the ability to incorporate future audio and video formats. This “future proofing” ability of RTP is in my opinion its strongest characteristic. Sure, it’s versatile and can be used in a variety of applications for today’s converged networks, but what about tomorrow? RTP has that covered. This is incredibly important as anyone who deals with technology knows; it’s quite literally a matter of time before the next step in technology’s evolution is upon us and renders our current set up obsolete. RTP just makes one less thing to change, which ultimately is what any organization is looking for when implementing any form of technology.

RTP has a few RFCs which cover it’s variety of uses. For general purposes, RFC 3550 covers the majority of its use. It breaks down everything from definition to uses and it’s pairing with RTCP, as well as RTCP. While there is a lot of information in this 103 page RFC, what I found useful to know was the fact that RTP carries the same security issues as the underlying protocols. This is incredibly important to know as many businesses and organizations migrate from traditional networks to converged networks. The truth of it all is that there is quite a bit of confidential and sensitive information that is exchanged everyday across a company’s converged network. All security issues will need to be addressed to ensure the privacy of these communications remains intact. Having the knowledge before implementing it will allow you to take preemptive action to sure up the security side of things, before it becomes a major issue. Bibliography
Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP). (2007, 4). Retrieved 2 7, 2014, from SearchNetworking: http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/definition/Real-Time-Transport-Protocol
Schulzrine, H., Casner, S., Frederick, R., & Jacobson, V. (2003, 7). RTP: A Transport Protocol for Real-Time Applications. Retrieved 2 7, 2014, from ietf.org: http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3550.txt