Media Services - Beyond the MCU

Richard Tworek

Workshop Leaders

• Chad Hart

– Dialogic

• Jason Fedore

• Tadas Straševičius

– FACEmeeting

D3-4 Beyond the MCU

Chad Hart

WebRTC Expo V

Image source: http://thewrestlinglifeupdate.tumblr.com/

Multi-PARTY! Video Conferencing

Easy & cheap approach to multi-party: Mesh

6

Full Mesh

Works for a few parties

No server cost

Lowest latency

Mesh does not scale for many video conferees

7

Full Mesh

Clients get overloadedEncode costs more than decode

Limited uplink bandwidth

Inconsistent performance across participants

Traditional Telephony Approach: MCU

8

Multipoint Control Unit (MCU)Good at manipulating all media

Transcoding

Transizing

Transrating

Interworking

Server-side CPU intensive

Client can request different conference mixes

Usually client friendly

Downsizing & mixing can reduce bandwidth

Fewer client streams to process

MCU

Traditional MCU resource usage

9

Worst-case process:1. Each stream decoded at

the MCU

2. MCU mixes each conferee

3. MCU encodes individual mix for each conferee

MCU

11 2

23

34

455

66

Ingress streams 6

Egress streams 6

MCU decodes 6

MCU encodes 6

Efficient MCU resource usage

10

Efficient process:1. Each stream decoded at

the MCU

2. MCU mixes each conferee

3. MCU shares same encoder for all conferees

MCU

12

3

45

6

Ingress streams 6

Egress streams 6

MCU decodes 6

MCU encodes 1

1

Resource efficient MCU with encoder sharing

• 30%-50% reduction in compute resources

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 15 17 20

Syst

em

CP

U U

tiliz

atio

n

Conferees

Encoder sharing vs. multi-encode

Traditional MCU Dialogic Evolved MCU

Newer approach: SFU

12

SFU

Selective Forwarding Unit (SFU) routing

Clients send one & receive many

Client can instruct SFU which streams to send

High throughput

Can be lots of downlink bandwidth

Low latency

Newer approach: SFU

13

SFU

Selective Forwarding Unit (SFU) routing

Clients send one & receive many

Client can instruct SFU which streams to send

High throughput

Can be lots of downlink bandwidth

Low latency

New WebRTC approach: Simulcast

14

SFU

High bitrate

Low bitrate

Selective Forwarding Unit (SFU) with Simulcast

Clients send multiple streams to SFU

one high-bit rate

one or more lower-bit

Client directs SFU which streams to receive

Reduces bandwidth vs. SFU

Simulcast in WebRTC coming

A look at Google Hangouts with Simulcast

http://webrtchacks.com/hangout-analysis-philipp-hancke/

Future Approach with VP9 – SVC?

16

SFU

MediumHigh LowLayered bitrates:

Selective Forwarding Unit (SFU) with SVC

Clients send layered stream to SFU

Layers have varying bitrates –time, size, quality

SFU directs who gets what

Coming to WebRTC eventually

Multi-party video summary comparison

http://networkfuel.dialogic.com/webrtc-whitepaper

Building a compelling UX with a MCU

Video UX: Traditional method

MCU1 2

3 4

Mixed stream 1 2

3 4

3G Device

Video UX: Traditional method

MCU1 2

3 4

Mixed stream 1 23

3G DeviceActive Talker

Media Server Chooses Layout

Integrating Intel CS for WebRTC

to your Web Application

Tadas Strasevicius, CTO FACEmeeting

Jason Fedore, Founder of FACEmeeting

Agenda

• What is FACEmeeting?

• What problems we solved with Intel CS?

Intel CS integration to your web app:

• Conference Server Installation

• Adding Intel CS SDK to your server side

• Adding Intel CS SDK to your client side

What is FACEmeeting?The next generation video platform

Why Intel CS for WebRTC?Stable multiparty video conferencing solution

WebRTC compatible

Signaling WebSockets

Scalability

Easy integration

Hardware acceleration in server side

Why you need MCU?It is not possible to make multi-party meetings

without enough device resources

High local CPU consumption

Bandwidth limit

High battery consumption

Best scenario for mobile devices

Peer to Peer modelThat’s why we love WebRTC

MCU modelSave your device resources

Hybrid model with Intel CSWebRTC is so great because of P2P

{Leave data channel open using P2P}

{Fallback to Intel MCU if needed}

L00ks good, h0w to st4rt?Step by step

+ Download and install Intel CS to your server

+ Using Client SDK integrate to your web application

IntegrationSteps

Installing conference server

Integrating Intel CS SDK to server side

Integrating Intel CS SDK to client side

1 2 3

Intel CS modes

Forwarding

reducing outgoing streams

Mix Mode

use only one incoming and one outgoing

stream

Install Intel CS to your serverStep by step

# Download from

https://software.intel.com/sites/landingpage/webrtc/

# Configure your server for Intel CS installation

# Install it on your server (Ubuntu 12.04 LTS* 64-bit recommended)

+ bin/init.sh –deps

# Enable hardware media acceleration

# Run MCU

+ bin/start-all.sh

# Configure MCU cluster (not necessary if you don’t need scalability)

Fast integration to your web appFront and back ends

# Server side integration with Intel CS server SDK

# Front end integration with Intel CS client SDK

Intel CS integration to your web app server-side

Step by step

Add Intel CS Server API file

Create Token

Create Room (or use existing)

Intel CS integration to your web app front-end

Step by step

1. Get local media

2. Get Token from server-side

3. Connect to room

4. Add event listeners

5. Subscribe mixed stream

6. Publish your local stream

MCU administration Awesome tool

Server resources monitoring

Services/Rooms management

Logs monitor

Users management

ContestWin FREE T-SHIRT!

http://webrtc.facemeeting.com/

THANK YOU

FOR YOUR ATTENTION!

Tadas StraseviciusCTO, FACEmeeting

tadas@facemeeting.com

Facemeeting.com/tadas

Jason FedoreFounder, FACEmeeting

jason@facemeeting.com

Facemeeting.com/jason.fedore