While HTTP is stateless, RTSP has a state; an identifier is used when needed to track concurrent sessions.
The default transport layer port number is 554[7] for both TCP and UDP, the latter being rarely used for the control requests.
This method is also used in the ONVIF IP Camera standard and can be combined with HTTPS for secure and encrypted video and audio.
There are several different methods for encrypting RTSP command messages and the RTP Video and Audio data.
[10] As of September 2024, RTSP over HTTPS has been implemented in several ONVIF IP Cameras and RTSPS (using the rtsps:// URL) has been implemented by Axis and Bosch CCTV Cameras,[11] FFmpeg, GStreamer, MediaMTX,[12] Ant Media Server[13] and SharpRTSP.