It depends in what context you mean but basically streaming data
is analagous to asynchronous data. Take the Web as an example.
The Web (or HTTP specifically) is (basically) a request-response
mechanism in that a client makes a request and receives a
response (typically a Web page of some kind). HTTP doesn't
natively support the ability for servers to push content to
clients. There are a number of ways this can be faked,
including: - Polling: forcing the client to make repeated
requests, typically inconspicuously (as far as the client is
concerned); - Long-lived connections: this is where the client
makes a normal HTTP request but instead of returning immediately
the server hangs on to the request until there's something to
send back. When the request times out or a response is sent th
eclient sends another request. In this way you can fake server
push; - Plug-ins: Java applets, Flash, Silverlight and others
can be used to achieve this. Anything where the server
effectively sends data to the client (rather th