ascp4: Streaming

Aspera streaming uses the FASP Stream technology to send unicast or multicast video stream over the internet, by using ascp4. Streaming is generally used to transfer a video stream from a stream provider, a system external to Aspera streaming that produces a video stream, to a stream consumer, a system external to Streaming that receives a video stream.

Note: Streaming capabilities are only provided with the IBM Aspera Enterprise and IBM Aspera Endpoint products. Streaming is not provided with, or supported by, the HSTS or HSTE stand-alone products.

The most common example of an input stream is media, which is encoded as a transport stream (often referred to as MPEG-TS). On the source host, the UDP provider captures packets that are delivered to a local multicast or unicast UDP port. The stream is transported reliably and in order to the remote host, where it is delivered to the specified local multicast or unicast UDP port. Video streaming that uses TCP and file I/O is also supported. Streams are reliably and bit-perfect replicated at the receiving endpoint with minimal and predictable latency, with rates from 10s of Mbps to multiple Gbps, and follow the standard Aspera FASP security framework.

Streaming can run on either a stand-alone computer or as an embedded service on third-party devices (for example, a video encoder). In a single point-to-point transfer, the sender is the system that initiates the transfer and sends a request to a receiver for a streaming session. In general, a sender might produce only a stream and a receiver might consume only a stream. Additionally, a server might act as both a sender and a receiver and is not limited to a number of concurrent streams up to the bandwidth limit purchased.