1.3 Overview
The Windows Media HTTP Push Distribution Protocol is used for transferring real-time multimedia data (for example, audio and video) from a client to a server. Push distribution is ideal for broadcasting company meetings or live presentations. In such scenarios, the client is likely to be an encoder software application, perhaps implemented by using the Windows Media Encoder SDK. For more information, see [WMESDK].
The protocol depends on HTTP for the transfer of all protocol messages, including the transfer of the multimedia data. In this specification, the entity that initiates the HTTP connection is referred to as the client, and the entity that responds to the HTTP connection is referred to as the server. With the Windows Media HTTP Push Distribution Protocol, multimedia data flows from the client to the server—the opposite of other streaming protocols, such as the Windows Media HTTP Streaming Protocol as specified in [MS-WMSP].
For the purposes of this specification, the terms client and encoder have the same meaning and are used interchangeably.