Voxeo Labs wants to make navigating the world of Web-based real time communications (WebRTC) just a little simpler, and to that end, Voxeo Labs' chief scientist, Dr. Daniel Burnett—along with Dr. Alan Johnston—has brought out a new guidebook geared toward bringing a better understanding of this new communications platform. The book is titled “WebRTC: APIs and RTCWEB Protocols of the HTML5 Real-Time Web,” and it's available in both digital and paperback formats on Amazon.
The book itself represents the second edition, which means that several new points are covered from the previous release. Said to be included in the second edition is a full set of new chapters on signaling and security, as well as privacy features. Also included is some completely runnable WebRTC demo code for both client- and server-side activities, geared more for educational purposes than anything.
The book also covers a wide array of new APIs from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), as well as the various Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) protocols associated with WebRTC. There are a set of new details on various NAT traversal applications—including STUN, TURN and ICE protocols—and the whole thing is geared toward trying to make the variety of complex protocols and concepts going into WebRTC that much easier to understand. A bit of background about things like NAT in general, firewall traversal, and even peer-to-peer media can make all the difference, and that's what the book is said to offer.
Not only geared for minds of a more technical bent, the second edition of the book—according to Dr. Burnett, who also serves as an editor on the two main WebRTC specifications from the W3C—is specifically intended to improve understanding on every level. Burnett cites the code sample and the new chapters on signaling as a way to allow “anyone with Web or telephony experience to get their feet wet in this exciting new space.” Additionally, according to Alan Quayle's review of the first edition, the book is good for just about anyone looking to get a better understanding of WebRTC as a whole, from developers to “a marketing person” or even “a strategy person.”
Given that WebRTC is already offering up a lot of possibilities in the field of communications, this is a field that could likely benefit from a little more “layman's terms” explanations to better get the word out about just how big of a change this poses for virtually every section of communications. What with already being seen as part of several games like Google's “Cube Slam”, as well as cropping up in several collaboration tools and the like, WebRTC is a lot more than just a point-to-point or small group video chatting system. This book will likely provide plenty of insight, and may well trigger some completely new innovations thanks to that newfound insight.
WebRTC is making a lot of changes to the landscape, and the more we understand about this new technology, the more likely we are to see still more changes emerge.
Edited by
Rory J. Thompson
