Overview of Windows Media Player Protocols

This chapter introduces the general features of VoleraTM Media Excelerator for Windows Media.

If you want more general information regarding streaming media, see Streaming Media Overview in the Volera Excelerator 2.3 Administration Guide.

The following table summarizes the protocols supported by the Windows* Media Player* and the advantages and disadvantages associated with each protocol:


Table . Windows Media Player Protocol Support

Protocol Name Protocol Details Advantages Disadvantages Excelerator Streaming Support

MMS in HTTP

MMS in HTTP in TCP: Both control and media data.

Transparent and reverse services use 80 as their standard port.

Forward services most commonly use port 8080.
  • Uses the Web's most standard protocol.
  • Setup is easy.
  • Provides guaranteed delivery of media data.
  • Supports realtime delivery of media data.
  • Lets players fast-forward, pause, etc.
  • Passes through firewalls with other Web data.
  • Slight protocol overhead for guaranteed delivery.

Media Excelerator (v1.0 and later) for Microsoft Windows Media

MMS in TCP

MMS in TCP: Both control and media data.

Transparent, reverse, and forward services use 1755 as their standard port.
  • Guaranteed delivery of media data.
  • Supports realtime delivery of media data.
  • Lets players fast forward, pause, etc.
  • Might be blocked by firewall.
  • Slight protocol overhead for guaranteed delivery.

Media Excelerator (v1.1 and later) for Microsoft Windows Media

MMS in UDP

MMS in TCP: Control data.

MMS in UDP: Media data.

Transparent, reverse, and forward services use 1755 as their standard port for TCP (control data). UDP (media data) uses a dynamically allocated port number.
  • UDP provides the most efficient network throughput to the players.
  • Supports realtime delivery of media data.
  • Lets players fast-forward, pause, etc.
  • May be blocked by firewall.
  • UDP packet delivery is unreliable. When used to fill the cache, the stream that is cached may be a lower quality.

Media Excelerator (v1.1 and later) for Microsoft Windows Media

NOTE:  UDP requests are filled using TCP unless the Allow UDP for Filling option is checked when a media cache service is created.