RTMPSRT

RTMPSRT is a proposed real-time streaming and data transport protocol designed for secure, low-latency transmission across distributed networks. It is not an established standard, but appears in some academic papers and open-source proposals as a model for combining real-time media transport with structured data messaging.

RTMPSRT aims to unify real-time media and telemetry across heterogeneous networks, supporting synchronized streams with minimal jitter. It specifies end-to-end encryption, integrity protection, and flexible latency budgets to accommodate varying network conditions. Time stamps and sequence numbers enable precise ordering and replay protection.

The protocol defines a layered architecture with a control plane for authentication and session negotiation, and a data plane for transporting payloads. It supports multiplexing multiple streams within a single connection, with framing that includes a header containing a timestamp, a sequence number, and a stream identifier. It offers optional reliability modes, ranging from best-effort delivery to selective retransmission, and includes congestion-control mechanisms to adapt to changing bandwidth.

Security and interoperability are central design goals. RTMPSRT relies on standard cryptographic primitives (such as TLS or DTLS) for confidentiality and integrity, with mutual authentication and role-based access control. It is intended to be interoperable with existing media and messaging ecosystems through defined profile mappings to formats like video, audio, and telemetry payloads.

Status and adoption remain experimental. There is no official standards body or ratified specification for RTMPSRT, and most references exist in research or prototype implementations. Potential use cases include live streaming, industrial telemetry, remote sensing, and real-time dashboards requiring synchronized, secure transport across heterogeneous networks.

See also: RTMP, RTSP, WebRTC, MQTT.