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Peer Calls v4 (alpha)

Build Status

WebRTC peer to peer calls for everyone. See it live in action at peercalls.com/alpha.

This branch contains experimental work. The server has been completely rewriten in Go and all the original functionality works. An optional implementation of a Selective Forwarding Unit (SFU) is being made to make Peer Calls consume less bandwith for user video uploads. Once implemented, it will be released as Peer Calls v4.

Requirements

Alternatively, Docker can be used to run Peer Calls.

Stack

Backend

See go.mod for more information

Frontend

  • React
  • Redux
  • TypeScript (since peer-calls v2.1.0)

See package.json for more information.

Installation & Running

Using Docker

Use the peercalls/peercalls image from Docker Hub:

docker run --rm -it -p 3000:3000 peercalls/peercalls:alpha

Building from Source

git clone https://github.com/peer-calls/peer-calls.git
cd peer-calls
npm install

# for production
npm run build
npm run build:go:linux

# for development
npm run start

Building Docker Image

git clone https://github.com/peer-calls/peer-calls
cd peer-calls
docker build -t peer-calls .
docker run --rm -it -p 3000:3000 peer-calls:alpha

Configuration

Environment variables

Variable Type Description Default
PEERCALLS_LOG csv Enables or disables logging for certain modules -sdp,-ws,-pion:*:trace,-pion:*:debug,-pion:*:info,*
PEERCALLS_BASE_URL string Base URL of the application
PEERCALLS_BIND_HOST string IP to listen to 0.0.0.0
PEERCALLS_BIND_PORT int Port to listen to 3000
PEERCALLS_TLS_CERT string Path to TLS PEM certificate. If set will enable TLS
PEERCALLS_TLS_KEY string Path to TLS PEM cert key. If set will enable TLS
PEERCALLS_STORE_TYPE string Can be memory or redis memory
PEERCALLS_STORE_REDIS_HOST string Hostname of Redis server
PEERCALLS_STORE_REDIS_PORT int Port of Redis server
PEERCALLS_STORE_REDIS_PREFIX string Prefix for Redis keys. Suggestion: peercalls
PEERCALLS_NETWORK_TYPE string Can be mesh or sfu. Setting to SFU will make the server the main peer mesh
PEERCALLS_NETWORK_SFU_INTERFACES csv List of interfaces to use for ICE candidates, uses all available when empty
PEERCALLS_ICE_SERVER_URLS csv List of ICE Server URLs
PEERCALLS_ICE_SERVER_AUTH_TYPE string Can be empty or secret for coturn static-auth-secret config option.
PEERCALLS_ICE_SERVER_SECRET string Secret for coturn
PEERCALLS_ICE_SERVER_USERNAME string Username for coturn

The default ICE servers in use are:

  • stun:stun.l.google.com:19302
  • stun:global.stun.twilio.com:3478?transport=udp

Only a single ICE server can be defined via environment variables. To define more use a YAML config file. To load a config file, use the -c /path/to/config.yml command line argument.

See config/types.go for configuration types.

Example:

base_url: ''
bind_host: '0.0.0.0'
bind_port: 3005
ice_servers:
 - urls:
   - 'stun:stun.l.google.com:19302'
- urls:
  - 'stun:global.stun.twilio.com:3478?transport=udp'
#- urls:
#  - 'turn:coturn.mydomain.com'
#  auth_type: secret
#  auth_secret:
#    username: "peercalls"
#    secret: "some-static-secret"
# tls:
#   cert: test.pem
#   key: test.key
store:
  type: memory
  # type: redis
  # redis:
  #   host: localhost
  #   port: 6379
  #   prefix: peercalls
network:
  type: mesh
  # type: sfu
  # sfu:
  #   interfaces:
  #   - eth0

To access the server, go to http://localhost:3000.

Accessing From Network

Most browsers will prevent access to user media devices if the application is accessed from the network (not via 127.0.0.1). If you wish to test your mobile devices, you'll have to enable TLS by setting the PEERCALLS_TLS_CERT and PEERCALLS_TLS_KEY environment variables. To generate a self-signed certificate you can use:

openssl req -nodes -x509 -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout key.pem -subj "/C=US/ST=Oregon/L=Portland/O=Company Name/OU=Org/CN=example.com" -out cert.pem -days 365

Replace example.com with your server's hostname.

Multiple Instances and Redis

Redis can be used to allow users connected to different instances to connect. The following needs to be added to config.yaml to enable Redis:

store:
  type: redis
  redis:
    host: redis-host  # redis host
    port: 6379        # redis port
    prefix: peercalls # all instances must use the same prefix

Logging

By default, Peer Calls server will log only basic information. Client-side logging is disabled by default.

Server-side logs can be configured via the PEERCALLS_LOG environment variable. Setting it to * will enable all server-side logging:

  • PEERCALLS_LOG=*

Client-side logs can be configured via localStorage.DEBUG and localStorage.LOG variables:

  • Setting localStorage.log=1 enables logging of Redux actions and state changes
  • Setting localStorage.debug=peercalls,peercalls:* enables all other client-side logging

Development

Below are some common scripts used for development:

npm start              build all resources and start the server.
npm run build          build all client-side resources.
npm run start:server   start the server
npm run js:watch       build and watch resources
npm test               run all client-side tests.
go test ./...`a        run all server tests
npm run ci             run all linting, tests and build the client-side

Browser Support

Tested on Firefox and Chrome, including mobile versions. Also works on Safari and iOS since version 11. Does not work on Microsoft Edge because they do not support DataChannels yet.

For more details, see here:

In Firefox, it might be useful to use about:webrtc to debug connection issues. In Chrome, use about:webrtc-internals.

When experiencing connection issues, the first thing to try is to have all peers to use the same browser.

TURN Server

When a direct connection cannot be established, it might be help to use a TURN server. The peercalls.com instance is configured to use a TURN server and it can be used for testing. However, the server bandwidth there is not unlimited.

Here are the steps to install a TURN server on Ubuntu/Debian Linux:

sudo apt install coturn

Use the following configuration as a template for /etc/turnserver.conf:

lt-cred-mech
use-auth-secret
static-auth-secret=PASSWORD
realm=example.com
total-quota=300
cert=/etc/letsencrypt/live/rtc.example.com/fullchain.pem
pkey=/etc/letsencrypt/live/rtc.example.com/privkey.pem
log-file=/dev/stdout
no-multicast-peers
proc-user=turnserver
proc-group=turnserver

Change the PASSWORD, realm and paths to server certificates.

Use the following configuration for Peer Calls:

iceServers:
- url: 'turn:rtc.example.com'
  urls: 'turn:rtc.example.com'
  username: 'example'
  secret: 'PASSWORD'
  auth: 'secret'

Finally, enable and start the coturn service:

sudo systemctl enable coturn
sudo systemctl start coturn

TODO

  • Do not require config files and allow configuration via environment variables. (Fixed in 23fabb0)
  • Show menu dialog before connecting (Fixed in 0b4aa45)
  • Reduce production build size by removing Pug. (Fixed in 2d14e5f c743f19)
  • Add ability to share files (Fixed in 3877893)
  • Add Socket.IO support for Redis (to scale horizontally).
  • Allow other methods of connectivity, beside mesh.
  • Fix connectivity issues with SFU

Contributing

See Contributing section.

If you encounter a bug, please open a new issue! Thank you ❤️

License

Apache 2.0