ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Media Dispatch Protocol

Imagine you and your friend are playing a game with walkie-talkies. You want to send a message to your friend, but since you are far away from each other, you need a way to communicate. So, you use a special set of rules that both you and your friend follow when talking on the walkie-talkie. This set of rules is called a protocol.

Now, let's imagine that instead of walkie-talkies, you are using a computer and want to send pictures, videos, or music files to your friend. To do this, you also need a protocol. This protocol is called the media dispatch protocol.

The media dispatch protocol is like a set of instructions that tells your computer how to send and receive media files over the internet. It helps your computer know what format the media files should be in, where to send them, and how to make sure the files arrive safely.

When you want to send a picture to your friend, your computer will first check if it has the right protocol to do so. If it doesn't, it will try to find the right one. Once it has the correct protocol, your computer will convert the picture file into a special format that it can send over the internet. This format is like putting the picture in a special envelope that can be easily opened by your friend's computer.

Next, your computer will divide the picture into small pieces and add some extra information to each piece, like a number that represents the order in which the pieces need to be put back together. This is important so that your friend's computer can arrange the pieces properly when it receives them.

Your computer then sends these picture pieces one by one through the internet to your friend's computer. It also keeps track of which pieces your friend's computer has received. If any piece gets lost or something goes wrong, your computer will try to send it again until your friend's computer receives all the pieces.

Once all the pieces of the picture have been received by your friend's computer, it starts putting them back together in the correct order using the extra information your computer added. Finally, your friend's computer converts the pieces back into a regular picture file that can be opened and viewed.

In summary, the media dispatch protocol is a set of rules that computers follow to send and receive media files over the internet. It helps computers convert and divide media files, send them in small pieces, and make sure they arrive safely, so you can share pictures, videos, and music with your friends easily.