What is WebRTC Signaling?

WebRTC signaling is a process of setting up, controlling, and terminating a communication session between peers. In order for two peers to begin connecting to one another, three types of information must be exchanged:

  • Session control information determines when to initialize, close, and modify communications sessions. It can be also used in error reporting.
  • Network Data reveals where endpoints are located on the Internet (IP address and port) so callers (1. peer) can find callees (2. peer).
  • Media Data is required to determine the codecs and media types that the callers and callees have in common. If endpoints attempting to start a communications session have different resolutions and codec configurations, then a successful conversation is unlikely. Signaling that exchanges media configuration information between peers occurs by using an offer and answer in the Session Description Protocol (SDP) format.
What is a WebRTC Server?

A server that provides the functionality required for the proper connection of WebRTC sessions in the cloud or self-hosting in order to make your WebRTC projects work is called a “WebRTC server”.

4 types of WebRTC Servers:
  • WebRTC application servers
  • WebRTC signaling servers
  • NAT traversal servers for WebRTC
  • WebRTC media servers
What Is a WebRTC Signaling Server?

A WebRTC signaling server is a server that manages the connections between peers. It is just used for signaling. It helps with enabling one peer to find another in the network, negotiating the connection itself, resetting the connection if needed, and closing it down.

All peers send notifications to the server, they are connected, and the server forwards them to the peer. Notification requests can be done over WebSockets or HTTP protocols such as REST for sending and long polling for receiving. Both of these ways need extra effort or power to receive notification messages. For example, WebSocket needs to be alive and it cannot be used on demand or long polling needs to make an HTTP request a lot of time in a short period which consumes bandwidth.

Click here to read more:

https://antmedia.io/webrtc-signaling-servers-everything-you-need-to-know/