webRTC videoconference-in-a-box (C monolith)

tiny-webrtc-gw: a webRTC conferencing server "monolith" written in C/C++

Welcome to the tiny-webrtc-gw readme!

Goals

• Infinite ⌚ duration streams (security 📹 friendly)
• private rooms
• 1-click-join links
• VP8,VP9,H.264
• very fast stream multiplexing via lightweight C
• NO cloud or external STUN/TURN involved ergo: raspberry-pi + airgapped LAN
• SD/HD bitrates
• High-performance: ~68Mbit/sec per stream+thread on an 800Mhz ARM7
• friendly chatroom-style UX (e.g. justin.tv)

Features

• Very low latency 1-many streaming
• HD stream (via media constraints) support
• text chat room
• highly scalable (native c/c++ code)
• end-to-end encrypted
• chrome/firefox/opera/safari (iOS) support
• easy compilation (just git checkout --recursive and "make all")
• select media devices
• code includes submodule referencing the standalone HTTPS server + example certificate
• Works directly with OBS via WHIP

Demo:

📷chat lobby on a raspi4;

Pics:

Caveats:

since browsers won't allow webRTC to be negotiated unencrypted (https) you will need to run an SSL frontend in front of the built-in http server (see config.txt for that port) lots of better built-ins exist but I use a tool I wrote as a proxy [https://github.com/justinb01981/SSLTools] (maybe just use a (free) self-signed certificate generated by openssl(2) for now and import it into the conferencee's browser/OS certificate trust-store)

Building:

building requires 'go' to compile boringssl (so install those packages) from the base directory just run 'make all'.

Etc:

• 8/15 - NO host setup necessary (beyond making ports accessible) - this is possible with the new stun_client.c code - but in airgapped networks config.txt is the way to go.
• 9/14 - OBS-direct (no browser) streaming support coming - see https://webrtchacks.com/webrtc-cracks-the-whip-on-obs/
• constructing a share URL:

<your_https_prefix>/content/index_broadcast.html?joinroom=<roomname>&camera=0

--- e.g. https://tinyurl.com/jbhatestypingthis

(drops a user in "lobby" with camera disabled)