What protocol mechanism often serves as the actual transport beneath the RTSP control protocol?
User Datagram Protocol (UDP) via Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP).
The Real-Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) handles the control signaling but relies on underlying transport protocols to carry the bulk of the media data. In this layered architecture, RTSP sits above the transport mechanism. The text specifies that the actual delivery of real-time data streams often utilizes the User Datagram Protocol (UDP). UDP is favored for its speed, though it lacks inherent guaranteed delivery. To add the necessary timing and ordering information that UDP lacks, the Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) is layered on top of UDP. Therefore, the combined mechanism of UDP/RTP forms the necessary transport foundation for the data that RTSP is controlling.

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Yuriy Reznik - Streaming in 1970s. NVP & ST - YouTube