A protocol for the transmission of digitized audio and video data must schedule data transmission such that each audio or video sample is available in the receiver's buffer by its play-out deadline without overflowing the allotted buffer space at the receiver. While traditional data communication protocols provide error-free data transmission through the use of time-outs and retransmissions, the unbounded number of retransmissions that a packet may suffer results in an unboundable network transmission delay. Thus, such protocols are not appropriate for the real-time transmission of digitized audio and video data;This dissertation examines the network environments likely to be used for digitized audio and video data transmission and develops an audio/video transport-layer communication protocol which for such network environments. A unique feature of this protocol is the calculation of a transmission schedule which can minimize the buffer requirements at the receiver while still meeting the real-time play-out deadlines of the individual audio and video streams.