telcos, rcs & webrtc - "democratisation" of voice and video
TRANSCRIPT
What are users expecting?
Group interactions (voice, text, video)
Share content (locations, screen share, documents)
Works anywhere (take your ‘mobile number’ across devices)
Purchase products and services
Receive important notifications (Travel, Event tickets)
Everybody is texting
People are interacting not just with friends
People interact with businesses!
They access services ranging from customer support to sales.
Whatsapp, Facebook messenger, Skype ...
Rich content apps are becomingthe default expectation for the user’s communication experience
What are these apps replacing ?
The humble SMS.
Adding text messaging functionality to mobile devices began in the early 1980s.
And today, SMS is a technology that is not keeping up.
People are expecting Rich Communication Services
And pretty soon, smart services too!
Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft are already experimenting with smart service bots.
OTT apps
OTT apps (Over The Top) are applications that run on top of the telecom services turning telecom operators in data providers.
Key features of RCS (as viewed by the telecom world)
Enhanced Phonebook: service capabilities and enhanced contacts information such as presence and service discovery.
Key features of RCS (as viewed by the telecom world)
Enhanced Phonebook: service capabilities and enhanced contacts information such as presence and service discovery.
Enhanced Messaging: enables a large variety of messaging options including chat, emoticons, location share and file sharing.
Key features of RCS (as viewed by the telecom world)
Enhanced Phonebook: service capabilities and enhanced contacts information such as presence and service discovery.
Enhanced Messaging: enables a large variety of messaging options including chat, emoticons, location share and file sharing.
Enriched Calls: enables multimedia content sharing during a voice call, video call and screen sharing.
Telecom companies
+ have infrastructure and interoperability protocols
- hard to understand and use
Telecom companies VS App/Web developers
App/Web developers
+ flexibility and easy to use libraries to develop custom solutions
- hard to interoperate
VoLTE and RCS: Nothing to Offer the App Developer
Is Voice over LTE, the next for mobile networks ?
HD voice and video calls interoperable with other carriers.
Add chat and content sharing and voila!
The Holy Grail of Rich Communications Services (RCS).
GSMA Standards
The GSMA = 800 operators + 250 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem
Mission: Seize back mindshare with RCS branded as "joyn"
Result: Failed at establishing itself as valid commercial solution.
The “joyn” client - main issues
No room for flexibility
Only one active joyn client can run in a device at a time.
No control on user identity for custom apps/interactions.
Main reason of failure - no room for flexibility
RCS and the brand “joyn” defined everything
● How things are stored and manipulated on the server● All the protocols and api● Even all the user experience!
○ what the address book should look like ○ what the user would see on each and every screen!○ ...
The purpose of WebRTC
No login, installations, downloads or add-ons.
WebRTC will allow the "democratisation" of voice and video.
Web does what it does best, disrupt old practices.
WebRTC is a combination of two standards:
an IETF-driven "media engine" and set of IP network protocols for real-time communications
an API established by a W3C working group enabling browser-to-browser applications for voice calling, video chat, and peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing without plugins.
The telecoms industry is in a precarious position
Increasing supply of new operators, MVNOs, so-called OTTs etc.
Flat or declining demand for basic telephony and messaging services
Many markets are near-saturated, and face both:
WebRTC is a catalyst for change
Source of extra competition
Incumbent operators are forced to reconsider strategies.
The right WebRTC strategy for telecom operators
New focus for the operators!
From QUANTITY (number of minutes and messages)
To VALUE based on the intention and context of the use
Pushing the telecom players
Operators learned that it is crucial that they:
● develop communications services & apps meeting real human needs
● engage with application builders.
The universal RCS profile and Android client
Google is partnering with carriers and OEMs.
The provided RCS client will be interoperable with any RCS-compliant client across any platform.
Easily updatable from the Google Play store.
Deliver a unified messaging experience across the Android ecosystem.
Add RCS to your current or future app
Uses core technologies – such as HTML, HTTP, and TCP/IP – that are open and freely implementable.
Already integrated with best-of-breed voice and video engines that have been deployed on millions of endpoints over the last 8+ years.
Google does not charge royalties for WebRTC.
Add RCS to your current or future app
Includes and abstracts key solutions to bypass possible issues created by routers and firewalls.
Builds on the strength of the web browser.
Web developers can choose the protocol of choice for their usage scenario
Current main issues
SignalingHow do I find the person I want to talk to?Security Exposing internal network structureBandwidthEncode once send multiple resolutions
WebRTC Call setup
Device 1 Device 2
JS/HTML/CSS JS/HTML/CSS
Data channel
Media channel
Web
WebServer
WebServer
Signaling path
Websocket Websocket
Unlimited possible use-cases of WebRTC
Corporate conferencing
Team collaboration
Online learning
Online gaming
Logistic automation
Health Care ...
Availability
Already available on:
Web (Chrome, Firefox), Android, iOS
Soon on:
Safari; Edge via Object RTC (ORTC)
Available as SDK for embedding in native applications.
And, perhaps in the future, built-in to some OS's themselves.
Upcoming features
Recording and MediaStreaming
Analyze remote audio quality; perform additional processing
Add devices as mics or speakers into sessions
Separate processing of individual audio tracks from rendering, e.g., for local speaker switching
Upcoming features
VP9 Video codec
30% less bits at the cost of +15% CPU
If our Internet connection used to only allow uploading 480p without packet loss and delay, you can now have a video call using 720p
H264 video codec
Faster ICE/Turn setup,
Better wifi-cell handoff
More Bandwidth improvements
Acquisitions - 29 WebRTC related to date
Some recent ones:
Acision → Comverse
Speek → Jive Communications
mPortal → Broadsoft
requestec → Blackboard
ESNA → Avaya
Screenhero → Slack
Jitsi → Atlassian
Tropo → Cisco
Acano → Cisco
All the greatest in Internet technologies eventually became standard practice.
WebRTC will be no different.
Read more
● http://www.webrtc.org/
● http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/webrtc/basics/
● http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/webrtc/infrastructure/
● http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/webrtc/datachannels/