What is WebRTC?
The term WebRTC describes a standard for real-time communication that takes place via the browser. The standard is an open source project that offers numerous advantages for everyday use.
WebRTC is the name for a standard for real-time communication. The abbreviation in the name stands for “Real Time Communication”. Specifically, these are chats, videos, voice and even apps that are shared live.
Communication takes place via a browser. It is supported by all common corresponding solutions such as Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Safari or Mozilla Firefox.
How WebRTC works
WebRTC establishes a communication triangle as the standard. Information is usually obtained from the backend servers by browsers. It is a straight connecting line. As an example: Anyone who uses a streaming service basically only logs into a server with their access data and queries the data for the series, film or piece of music.
With real-time communication such as a chat, the whole thing becomes more complicated. The conversation partner’s browser must be integrated. Nevertheless, it remains necessary to query data from servers. Video conferencing is a good example of this: the software usually comes from the cloud to make this possible. So there has to be a triangular connection between the servers and the partners.
The following problems have to be solved:
- The users do not necessarily use an identical browser.
- The partners may want to exchange additional media such as PowerPoint presentations.
- Not every partner needs the identical data from the server or is allowed to call it up (different roles should be taken into account).
- Communication should be encrypted – on both sides.
The WebRTC standard therefore provides guidelines on how browsers and servers have to deal with forms of communication and which functions should be taken into account. The source code is for this reason since the first daysOpen source code available. Version 1.0 has also been generally available as an open standard since January 2021.
The story of WebRTC
The technology behind WebRTC was originally developed by a company called Global IP Solutions. Google bought the company in 2010 and left the development of the technology to the World Wide Web Consortium ( W3C ). The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) joined this project. Both have been working on the standard since 2011. However, the rights remain with Google. However, the company restricts itself to only forbidding commercial marketing by other companies.
