Way to Establish Real Time Communication using WebRTC
Today 81% of the businesses are using video technologies as a prominent marketing tool and social media creators like Mark Zuckerberg believe video is the future. Avoiding this technology would be a major set back for anyone. Video technology is the way. And, real-time communication tools like WebRTC is welcoming the video technology in a better way.
What is WebRTC
Source – https://www.cometchat.com
WebRTC is an abbreviation for a Web Real-Time Communication setup. It is an open-source and free project that has brought real-time communication privilege into the mobile applications and web browsers by using open web standards and regular APIs. Using the Application Programming Interface, this project has emerged as the new web browsing technology by enabling the browser to use a peer to peer communication. This project is the amalgamation of different programs besides APIs such as JavaScript, HTML 5 tags, versatile communication protocols and so on.
The technology centres like World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and Internet Engineering Task Force (IEFT) have called WebRTC a trustworthy communication channel for the future. The main idea behind WebRTC API is to create a secure access path for input peripherals such as webcam and microphones to share or exchange real-time data and media files with the remote devices in a peer to peer communication manner.
The operations including video conferencing, sharing media files with other devices and live video chat are some of the features of WebRTC. All the internet-connected devices such as laptops, smart TVs, AI devices and others help WebRTC to share videos and real-time data securely among one another. WebRTC is the way to real-time future-oriented communication.
WebRTC Workflow
Source: https://antmedia.io/learn-webrtc-basics-components/
WebRTC offers real-time communication services through web browsers. This project is a cocktail of HTML and JavaScript programs. On top, users can customize the design of the application using the CSS. The communication is engaged through the standard WebRTC API.
The API's provides a range of utilities to complete the connection such as encoding/decoding facilities, media control, negotiations, firewall, etc. To understand the workflow of WebRTC in browsers, you have to learn about numerous components and the architecture first. The WebRTC components are highly customizable, but in a broader sense, the WebRTC functions are distinguished into three components:
- MediaStream – Foremost, obtain the data that users want to share. In this step, the stream that users desire is captured. Next, the local stream will grant access to the browsers to access streaming devices such as a web camera or microphone. It helps the browser to capture the media. Users can set any sort of user name to get access from the browser.
- TCPeerConnection – Once the communication stream has been decided by the user, then the next part is to establish a connection with the partner’s system. It facilitates browser to exchange data freely to peer browsers for voice and video calls. The association between the sender and receiver is established through STUN and TURN servers.
- RTCDataChannel –This channel grants web browsers to exchange data in a bidirectional manner (peer to peer). The function called CreateDataChannel() is used on the instantiated PeerConnection object.
WebRTC Triangle
Source: Research Gate
In the WebRTC setup, three separate layers of API works for web developers. The first layer is all about the API's web developer demands that consists of RTCPeerConnection, RTCDataChannel and other media objects and their functions. The second one is API available for the browser makers. The third and final API is overridable on which browser makers can hookup.
When you are viewing the WebRTC architecture from the client server-side, then you can easily see one of the most common models powered SIP Trapezoid. Suppose, you and your friend are using a WebRTC application to communicate with one another. And, when you want to communicate with your friend, then a signal message will be used to set up and end communication.
The signal messages are transported to web servers through the HTTP or WebSocket protocol as they can easily modify, translate or manage the messages according to the situation. For the establishment of a data path, a PeerConnection is used to flow media directly between browsers without disturbance of servers. Using the two web servers, communication can be easily established using a standard signalling protocol and easy communication between two people can flow.
Benefits of WebRTC
There are plenty of benefits of WebRTC that has increased the popularity of WebRTC. Some of them are:
- Plugin free Solution – WebRTC is a plug-in free communication technology for the modern world. An user doesn’t need to use any additional plugins or programs to run audio, video and to share data. JavaScript APIs and HTML5 are used to embed communication technologies in the browser. All the popular communication tools like Google Hangouts, WhatsApp, Skype, Facebook Messenger and many others are embedded into the WebRTC already.
- Direct Exchange – Using WebRTC, all the browsers can directly exchange real-time media with other browsers in the standard peer to peer style of communication.
- Highly Secure – WebRTC is a highly secured data sharing system as compared to various other streaming systems. It doesn’t require any third-party software to maintain the high standards of security.
- Free Program – One of the major benefits of WebRTC, it is available free of cost. An user doesn’t have to spend a penny to use this program worldwide. On top, the technology is supported by all major browsers so it is a highly functional real-time communication tool.
WebRTC Future
Today, where everyone is using social media channels or other online communication mediums to communicate, having a standardised technology with all the video technology features is just phenomenal. Without the hassle of plugins or third-party software, video communication can be established through WebRTC.
Moreover, the WebRTC team is working constantly on improving the quality of WebRTC to make video calling possible through slower connections. For upcoming future, WebRTC will be ready to offer customer services to all companies, thus it is indeed going to be the future of communication business.