localtls VS webrtc

Here we are again, locking useful features behind HTTPS :)

Background: I have been working on a software that creates and streams extra virtual displays via the local network (like Duet Display or Apple's sidecar), and the easiest way to get started for everyone is to stream to a web browser.

WebRTC is kinda easy to implement thanks to webrtc-rs, but has unacceptable latency as I do not have control over whether or when exactly a frame is rendered (I need to be able to drop outdated frames). This API has the potential to do exactly what I want, but:

* It is not possible to connect to a local server if the viewer page is served via HTTPS, as the local server won't have HTTPS.

* It is possible to generate CAs and certificates locally and instruct users to install them, but I don't think that anyone out there will like this solution.

* We have WebTransport that might be able to do this, but it is an overly complex technology that uses HTTP/3 (plus no support on anything but Chromium), and tools like localtls[1] that requires internet connection and my own domain (I would really want this tool to be able to run completely offline).

Modern web APIs are kinda useless when you don't have internet, but the ship has sailed.

[1] https://github.com/Corollarium/localtls

I am really excited about https://github.com/sepfy/libpeer. It has examples ready for ESP32 etc....

When working on KVS I wasn't familiar with the embedded space at all. I saw 'heavyweight' embedded where you were running on Linux. Then you had RTOS/No OS at all. I wasn't prepared for these devices at all. If we can make WebRTC work in the embedded space I think it will really accelerate what developers are able to build!

Remotely driven cars, security cameras, robots in hospitals that bring iPads to infectious patients etc... Creative people are building amazing things. The WebRTC/video space needs to work harder and support them :)

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I love how diverse the WebRTC space is now. Outside of this implementation you have plenty of other options!

* https://github.com/shinyoshiaki/werift-webrtc (Typescript)

* https://github.com/pion/webrtc (Golang)

* https://github.com/webrtc-rs/webrtc (Rust)

* https://github.com/algesten/str0m (Rust)

* hhttps://github.com/sepfy/libpeer (C/Embedded)

* https://webrtc.googlesource.com/src/ (C++)

* https://github.com/sipsorcery-org/sipsorcery (C#)

* https://github.com/paullouisageneau/libdatachannel (C++)

* https://github.com/elixir-webrtc (Elixir)

* https://github.com/aiortc/aiortc (Python)

* GStreamer’s webrtcbin (C)

See https://github.com/sipsorcery/webrtc-echoes for examples of some running against each other.

This is not true, there are actually multiple WebRTC implementations in different languages besides the reference library: aiortc (python), libdatachannel (C++), sipsorcery (C#),webrtc-rs (rust), werift (Typescript), and Amazon Kinesis (C)

I am trying to get WebRTC working using Rust https://github.com/webrtc-rs/webrtc

I have opened an issue on GitHub [1], we can continue there.

[1] https://github.com/webrtc-rs/webrtc/issues/426

webrtc

webrtc.rs is a port of Pion (which we also use). It's a better fit for server-side use

I want to use peer-to-peer communication and data transfer for my next side project (client-server web app). I've been doing some research and WebRTC seems to be the only option for this on the client. There are a ton of libraries and product offering for facilitating STUN/TURN servers as a service, but I'm quite interested in learning more about these protocols. That being said, I'm not the best rust programmer (part of the reason of using Rust as the server is so that I can learn more), and the signalling protocols seem rather complicated. I've looked at https://github.com/webrtc-rs/webrtc and it seems promising.