There are three typical categories of data whose delivery could be controlled with RTSP:

• real-time stored clips
• real-time live feeds
• non real-time stored data

There are two types of control sessions - Global control session and the Stream control session.

There are four types of messages:

• connection messages - sent on the GCS - used to negotiate protocol version and client identity HELLO, ID, ID_RESP, REDIRECT, OPTIONS, GOODBYE
• object messages - sent on the SCS (one of each exists for each stream) - used to request objects, set transport mechanisms and control data delivery FETCH, STREAM_HEADER, SET_TRANSPORT, SET_SPEED, PLAY_RANGE, STREAM_SYNC, SET_BLOCK_SIZE, STOP, RESUME, SEND_REPORT, ERROR, UDP_RESEND...
• custom messages - providing general notification between server and client EVENT_NOTIFY
• media-specific options and extension mechanism GET_PARAM, PARAM_REPLY, PARAM_REFUSE, SET_PARAM

The example of RTSP track

The RTSP open architecture