WebRTC

WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communication) is a free, open-source project providing web browsers and mobile applications with real-time communication (RTC) via simple application programming interfaces (APIs). It allows audio and video communication to work inside web pages by allowing direct peer-to-peer communication, eliminating the need to install plugins or download native apps. Supported by Apple, Google, Microsoft, Mozilla, and Opera, WebRTC specifications have been published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).
According to the webrtc.org website, the purpose of the project is to "enable rich, high-quality RTC applications to be developed for the browser, mobile platforms, and IoT devices, and allow them all to communicate via a common set of protocols".
History.
In May 2010, Google bought Global IP Solutions or GIPS, a VoIP and videoconferencing software company that had developed many components required for RTC, such as codecs and echo cancellation techniques. Google open-sourced the GIPS technology and engaged with relevant standards bodies at the IETF and W3C to ensure industry consensus. In May 2011, Google released an open-source project for browser-based real-time communication known as WebRTC. This has been followed by ongoing work to standardize the relevant protocols in the IETF and browser APIs in the W3C.
In January 2011, Ericsson Labs built the first implementation of WebRTC using a modified WebKit library. In October 2011, the W3C published its first draft for the spec. WebRTC milestones include the first cross-browser video call (February 2013), first cross-browser data transfers (February 2014), and as of July 2014 Google Hangouts was "kind of" using WebRTC.
The W3C draft API was based on preliminary work done in the WHATWG. It was referred to as the ConnectionPeer API, and a pre-standards concept implementation was created at Ericsson Labs. The WebRTC Working Group expects this specification to evolve significantly based on:
In November 2017, the WebRTC 1.0 specification transitioned from Working Draft to Candidate Recommendation.
In January 2021, the WebRTC 1.0 specification transitioned from Candidate Recommendation to Recommendation.
Overview.
Design.
Major components of WebRTC include several JavaScript APIs:
The WebRTC API also includes a statistics function:
The WebRTC API includes no provisions for signaling, that is discovering peers to connect to and determine how to establish connections among them. Applications use Interactive Connectivity Establishment for connections and somehow manage sessions, possibly relying on any of Session Initiation Protocol, Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol, Message Queuing Telemetry Transport, Matrix (protocol), or another protocol. Signaling may depend on one or more servers.
RFC 7874 requires implementations to provide PCMA/PCMU (), Telephone Event as DTMF (), and Opus () audio codecs as minimum capabilities. The PeerConnection, data channel and media capture browser APIs are detailed in the W3C.
W3C is developing ORTC (Object Real-Time Communications) for WebRTC.
Examples.
Although initially developed for web browsers, WebRTC has applications for non-browser devices, including mobile platforms and IoT devices. Examples include browser-based VoIP telephony, also called cloud phones or web phones, which allow calls to be made and received from within a web browser, replacing the requirement to download and install a softphone.
Support.
WebRTC is supported by the following browsers:
GStreamer directly provides a free WebRTC implementation.
Concerns.
In January 2015, TorrentFreak reported a serious security flaw in browsers that support WebRTC, saying that it compromised the security of VPN tunnels by exposing the true IP address of a user. The IP address read requests are not visible in the browser's developer console, and they are not blocked by most ad blocking/privacy/security add-ons, enabling online tracking by advertisers and other entities despite precautions (however the uBlock Origin add-on can fix this problem). As of September 2019, this WebRTC flaw still surfaces on Firefox 69.x and still by default exposes the user's internal IP address to the web.