Real-Time Communication Channels for WebRTC Reconnection
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Solution Overview
Problem
The WebRTC protocol lacks mechanisms for call signaling, party identification, and inherent reconnect capabilities, particularly when devices switch networks, leading to communication disruptions and inefficiencies in connecting disparate devices like mobile devices and customer premises equipment.
Innovation Solution
Establishing a communication channel between devices prior to real-time communication, using a mediator system to store channel information, and employing reconnect messages to update URLs, with stateless and persistent storage to maintain connectivity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a database lookup is performed for every message to maintain connection state, then connection reliability is improved, but system performance and scalability deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by establishing connection channels and storing their metadata (channel identifiers, URL mappings, device information) in a database before actual message exchange occurs. Once the channel is established, the mediator system can forward messages using the pre-stored channel information without requiring database lookups for each message, thus maintaining reliability while improving performance.
2Ease of manufacture
If the WebRTC protocol is used for browser-to-browser communication, then implementation simplicity is improved, but adaptability to disparate devices across different networks deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a mediator system that acts as an intermediary between devices using different communication protocols and networks. The mediator receives messages from various devices (mobile phones, tablets, PCs, set-top boxes), translates them into a unified format, and forwards them through appropriate channels. This allows simple WebRTC-based browser communication to work with disparate devices across different networks without requiring complex protocol implementations on each device.
3Reliability
If channel information is stored in a database for every communication session, then connection recovery capability is improved, but system complexity and storage requirements worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts and stores only the essential channel metadata (channel identifiers, URL mappings, device identification information) in the database, rather than storing complete connection state information. The actual message forwarding and connection management are handled by the mediator system using these compact stored references. This reduces database storage requirements and simplifies the system while maintaining the ability to recover and re-establish connections.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and systems related to supporting real time communications are disclosed. In one type of a real time communication session, prior to an offer and acceptance to perform real time communications, a communication channel may be established between a caller device and a callee device. Information related to addresses of the caller and callee devices can be contained in, or pointed to, by a Universal Resource Locators (URLs) for the caller and callee devices. A network computing device may communicate messages relating to establishing and maintaining the communication channel between the caller and callee devices. In a scenario where the network computing device becomes unavailable, another network computing device can use the URLs and other channel information that may be stored in the database, to handle messages.