Media Over QUIC and the Future of High-Quality, Low-Latency Streaming
Much of today’s internet video content has settled into a dichotomy of delivery methods: the cost-effective but slightly lagging HTTP adaptive streaming and the ultra-responsive but expensive infrastructure of WebRTC-based video- conferencing. Each of these methods has mastered scale and speed but often achieved one at the expense of the other. A new protocol on the horizon, Media over QUIC (MoQ), offers a possible evolution by bridging these gaps.
HTTP adaptive streaming, exemplified by protocols such as HLS and DASH, has become synonymous with video delivery on the inter- net. This approach benefits from HTTP’s ubiq- uity and the extensive CDN infrastructure that has grown with it, enabling scalable and cost- effective distribution. At the other end of the spectrum, WebRTC caters to real-time com- munication, often sacrificing some quality for near-instantaneous delivery, which is essen- tial for videoconferencing and interactive applications. Each approach has proven useful within its niche, yet neither is easily adapt- ed to meet the growing need to stream high-quality broadcast experiences at low laten- cies and to do so economically and efficiently. Enter MoQ, which proposes a unified approach that could potentially enhance both quality and latency without the need for spe- cialized infrastructure.
On the ingest and contribution front, the landscape is a bit more fluid. RTMP has been a stalwart for streaming contributions, yet the desire for lower end-to-end latency in live-streaming workflows is ushering in alternatives. Some latency-sensitive platforms are now even accepting contributions over WebRTC by means of the emerging WebRTC-HTTP Ingestion Protocol (WHIP) signaling standard.
