tohava
tohava

Reputation: 5412

Assuming a user sends his IP and port to another, why does WebRTC need a signaling server for a data connection?

In all serverless (not including ICE/STUN) implementations of WebRTC, that create a data connection, I've always noticed that the flow is:

What I don't understand is why do we need the second step? In desktop apps, the first step is enough, even if there's a NAT (due to STUN servers). Is this some WebRTC limitation? If so, why?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 119

Answers (1)

Liubomyr
Liubomyr

Reputation: 53

Besides ICE candidates, SDP contains information about codecs, tracks etc. Signaling server is needed as a channel to establish a connection between peers by exchanging such information.

Upvotes: 1

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