1.1 Glossary

This document uses the following terms:

Advanced Systems Format (ASF): An extensible file format that is designed to facilitate streaming digital media data over a network. This file format is used by Windows Media.

content: Multimedia data. content is always in ASF, for example, a single ASF music file or a single ASF video file.  Data in general. A file that an application accesses. Examples of content include web pages and documents stored on either web servers or SMB file servers.

encoder: A device that uses software and/or hardware to encode content.

little-endian: Multiple-byte values that are byte-ordered with the least significant byte stored in the memory location with the lowest address.

playlist: One or more content items that are streamed sequentially.

push (or push distribution): A method by which a client initiates and manages the transmission of content to a server.

session: The state maintained by the server when it is streaming content to a client. If a server-side playlist is used, the same session is used for all content in the playlist.

stream: A sequence of ASF media objects ([ASF] section 5.2) that can be selected individually. For example, if a movie has an English and a Spanish soundtrack, each may be encoded in the ASF file as a separate stream. The video data would also be a separate stream.

streaming: The act of transferring content from a sender to a receiver.

MAY, SHOULD, MUST, SHOULD NOT, MUST NOT: These terms (in all caps) are used as defined in [RFC2119]. All statements of optional behavior use either MAY, SHOULD, or SHOULD NOT.