Understanding WebRTC

3
votes

I've testing currently the Features of WebRTC, but i have some brain-logic problems.

What is WebRTC exactly?

I'm reading only "STUN", "P2P" and other... But what is WebRTC correctly in technical aspect (See the next)

What i need

I've searching for an specific solution. For sample here, a web radio:

One client send their microphone data to the server and other connected clients will be hear it. The Server need some features: Only one client can share their microphone data to other. All other clients are "muted", but other clients can request to send their data in future. Is the selected client finished, other's can send.

Clarify, what i need

No, i don't want to create a web radio; I want to create a "sing server". One user can select a song and sing with their microphone. Other clients can hear it. If the user finished their "song", others can request "here, i want to sing these song...".

It is possible with WebRTC? Currently i think no, because, i think WebRTC is only a Peer-2-Peer solution. The server is not able to handle the direct audio data, but for my option i need it (i want it in the future, after the basisc are implemented, to modify the stream data to add some Features like voice effects). I've found some solutions with node.js but i'm only found in the code the broadcasting of peers for the clients; The audio data will never reach the server.

1
webrtc

1 Answers

3
votes

WebRTC is a P2P solution but it can be also a P2P connection from a publisher to server and many P2P connections from listeners to server. This is exactly what you need in your case.

There are 3 main WebRTC network topologies:

  • MESH - where every participant sends and receives its media to all other participants. Not scaled well, can scale to 4-6 participants for video sessions at most or 10 for audio.
  • SFU - can work in your case, can support around 10-15 participants for video and ~20 for audio. The most popular solution at this moment and easy to maintain.
  • MCU - can support many participants. But need more hardware and harder to maintain.

So in your case you definitely need some WebRTC server gateway, because you are going to have many listeners.

In your case maybe it's good to try Streaming capabilities as well.

I can recommend to try Janus WebRTC Gateway, especially 2 things: