The Media Dispatch Protocol (MDP) was developed by the Pro-MPEG Media Dispatch Group to provide an open standard for secure, automated, and tapeless delivery of audio, video and associated data files.
An MDP agent allows users be able to deal with company and programme names, rather than with filenames and network endpoints.
MDP acts as a communication layer between business logic and low-level file transfer mechanisms, providing a way to securely communicate and negotiate transfer-specific metadata about file packages, delivery routing, deadlines, and security information, and to manage and coordinate file transfers in progress, whilst hooking all this information to project, company and job identifiers.
Since early 2005, multiple implementations based on draft versions of the Media Dispatch Protocol have been in use, both for technical testing, and, since April 2005, for real-world production work.
Media Dispatch Protocol (MDP) has been standardized by a SMPTE Working Group under the S22 Committee.