How does a type 2 hypervisor, such as Workstation Player, relay sound?

[JTU4]

I recently decided to install vSphere, but then realized Type 1 hypervisors actually enable virtual servers that transmit certain data, such as sound, over the external network instead of doing it internally. Because my computer knowledge is very limited, I would like to avoid the risk of accidentally exposing my management/host VM (virtual server) to other computers on internet. So my question is, will the sound in Workstation Player go over the computer's external network, as in leaving my physical computer and going to my hardware router in my home and then back again to the same computer – or will it stay within the physical computer?

All of the guest VMs and the management/host VM have their Windows firewalls set to public and there’s no sharing of resources with other physical computers at home or elsewhere.

This can seem to be an insignificant question, but I’m asking because I intend to install Windows VPN apps in both the guest VMs and the host VM and I don’t want the sound to be routed via the commercial VPN provider’s servers. I discussed this in a vSphere forum:

https://communities.vmware.com/t5/vSphere-Host-Client-Discussions/Does-vSphere-have-native-audio-in-...

[bluefirestorm]

I am not sure what you mean by relay of sound. Do you mean the transmission of it?

Anyway, if you take away the hypervisor from the picture (doesn't matter whether it is type 1 or type 2), it all boils down to the protocol and/or encoding of the media format (e.g. audio encoded into WAV/MP3/MP4 formats).

For example, if you RDP into a Windows physical machine, the audio is in the RDP protocol (whether it is a system sound in WAV format or a playback of an MP3/MP4).

While the virtual hardware might emulate a virtual audio device for the guest OS to use, I doubt that the relay/transmission is handled by the hypervisors (be it type 1/type 2) as it will be too complex. It is all up to the guest OS and/or application to decode those.

Think of it another way with TV broadcast signals, the signal standards provides for the audio to be broadcast (encoded into the signals), whether the broadcast content indeed has audio or not is a separate question, as does whether the receiving TV itself has audio muted or working audio output is also a different question.

[JTU4]

I’m not interested so much in the encoding/decoding side of it, but how the RDP is relayed. Does it leave the physical computer on its way to and from the guest and the host? According to a commenter over at vSphere, it does, so I’m interested if this is also the case with type 2 hypervisors? I understand when two physical computers RDP the signal must travel over the network, but does it do that between guest and host in Workstation Player or is it internally in the physical machine?

[bluefirestorm]

I don't know the exact answer. But if you take out the hypervisor from the picture (i.e. use RDP to access a physical machine instead of a VM), I think the answer would be the same whether it is VM or physical machine. It is up to the protocol, in this case RDP. In that sense, the answer you seek probably has nothing to do with the hypervisor. I doubt the audio would have to pass through the hypervisor as the RDP client should not care (or even know) whether it is connecting to a physical machine or a VM.

Maybe it is something the technical specification of RDP might address
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/openspecs/windows_protocols/ms-rdpbcgr/5073f4ed-1e93-45e1-b039-6e30...

[JTU4]

Is it like in the first picture or second? Do VMware employees read and answer these threads?

https://communities.vmware.com/t5/vSphere-vNetwork-Documents/Understand-How-Virtual-Machine-Traffic-...