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Flash Media Server Article
Overview of streaming with Flash Media Server 3
Table of Contents
Flash media communication protocol: RTMP
Flash Media Server solutions have both a server-side and a client-side architecture. The client experience is deployed as a SWF or Adobe AIR file created in either Adobe Flash or Adobe Flex. Clients run within a web browser (Flash Player), mobile device (Flash Lite 3), or as a desktop application (Adobe AIR). A client could also be another Flash Media Server, Adobe ColdFusion 8, Adobe Flash Media Encoder, or licensed third-party technology that can stream or communicate with Flash Media Server. The server manages client connections and security, reads and writes to the server's file system, and performs other tasks.
The client is the initiator of the connection to the server. Once connected, the client can communicate with the server and with other connected clients. Clients connect to instances of applications; for example, a chat application may have many rooms. Each room is an instance of the chat application. Multiple instances of an application can be running simultaneously. Each application instance has its own unique name and provides unique resources to its connected clients.
Flash Media Server communicates with its clients using the Adobe patented, Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP) over TCP that manages a two-way connection, allowing the server to send and receive video, audio, and data between client and server (see Figure 1). In FMS 3, you also have the option to utilize stronger stream security with encrypted RTMP (RTMPE). RTMPE is easy to deploy and faster than utilizing SSL for stream encryption. RTMPE is just one of the robust new security features in FMS 3. (This will be discussed more in the following sections.)
Figure 1. Flash media server client/server architecture
There are five configurations of RTMP with FMS 3:
- RTMP: This is the standard, unencrypted Real-Time Messaging Protocol. The default port is 1935; if a port is not specified, the client will attempt to connect to ports in the following order: 1935, 443, and then via RTMPT on port 80. Port 1935 is a registered IANA port.
- RTMPT: This protocol is RTMP "tunneled" over HTTP; this means that the RTMP data is encapsulated as valid HTTP data. The default port is 80.
- RTMPS: This protocol is RTMP sent over a secure socket layer (SSL). SSL is a protocol that enables secure TCP/IP connections. (FMS natively supports both incoming and outgoing SSL connections.) The default port is 443.
- RTMPE: This new protocol is an enhanced and encrypted version of RTMP. RTMPE is faster than SSL and does not require certificate management as SSL does. If you specify RTMPE without explicitly specifying a port, Flash Player scans ports just as it does with standard RTMP, in the following order: 1935, 443, 80, and 80 (RTMPTE) (supported with Flash Player 9,0,115,0 minimum; Adobe AIR; Adobe Media Player).
- RTMPTE: Flash Media Server 3 introduces this enhanced version of the RTMP protocol which encrypts the communication channel, tunneling over HTTP. The default port is 80 (supported with Flash Player 9,0,115,0 minimum; Adobe AIR; Adobe Media Player). The key benefits over SSL (RTMPS) are performance, ease of implementation, and limited impact on server capacity.
Utilizing the appropriate RTMP type, FMS can send streams through all but the most restrictive firewalls, and protect rights-managed or sensitive content from piracy.
