Cloudflare: Real-Time Communications at Scale

Cloudflare: Real-Time Communications at Scale(blog.cloudflare.com)

17 points by timon-io 4 years ago | 7 comments

This is a pretty generic and non descriptive title but they're launching a WebRTC TURN service and some higher level libraries for using WebRTC.

Having to run your own TURN server is a notorious barrier for building serious p2p apps so I really welcome this development!

elithrar 4 years ago | |

> and some higher level libraries for using WebRTC

Not libraries - we’re building APIs that allow you to create rooms/channels, connect participants, manage authn/authz, ingest via non-WebRTC protocols (and still broadcast to participants), and trigger serverless code based on events in those channels.

Those clients will still connect over WebRTC using any browser, native client, or client abstractions you build - one of the best things about WebRTC are its browser APIs and existing set of clients.

In the meantime, we’re launching a “managed TURN” service for teams who already have WebRTC infrastructure but who need help scaling and securing.

(I work at Cloudflare and co-authored the blog)

ksec 4 years ago |

>Real-time typically refers to communication that happens in under 500ms

500ms?

Am I missing some key information in the context of WebRTC? Or something inherent of TURN ( Traversal Using Relays Around NAT ) ?

But it is interesting they are basically taking all the pain of building a web / internet Real Time communication system with open standards so I presume anyone could incorporate into their apps instead of getting lock in by third party solution.

elithrar 4 years ago | |

This is a fairly common definition of real time - not specific to Cloudflare. Two people talking over PSTN/cellular between Sydney and London is >= 250ms in the best case. Participants in the same country obviously won’t see this kind of latency.

TURN (as a protocol) doesn’t change this on its own, but our network backbone is going to help minimize jitter and keep latency as close to optimal as possible.

I would agree (if this is your implication) that this is very different from what we consider “real time” when it comes to control systems and safety systems.

(I’m a co-author of the blog post)

xfalcox 4 years ago |

I was looking into adding WebRTC voice chat into my app, and running TURN is indeed a problem. Excited to test Cloudflare solution here.

logankeenan 4 years ago |

This is really amazing and much needed for WebRTC apps! Will this work with data channels as well?

elithrar 4 years ago | |

WebRTC Components (TURN) doesn't discriminate being media tracks or data channels, and will relay data channels as well :-)

We also have WebSockets via Cloudflare Workers for layering more complex logic on top: https://developers.cloudflare.com/workers/learning/using-web...