drachtio - The open-source VoIP framework for full-stack WebRTC developers by Dave Horton
WebRTC and VoIP. The odd couple of modern communications. WebRTC gives web developers exciting new abilities to create innovative communication and collaboration applications, but only to the extent that someone has built out a reliable and performant back-end VoIP network. And until now, that has required specialized skills, knowledge and often domain-specific programming languages that a web developer can’t hope to acquire and maintain as a side effort to his or her day job. The Drachtio open source project aims to change that – to introduce the concept of a “full-stack webRTC developer” – by providing a pure Javascript node-js based framework that allows web developers to build their own back-end networks and applications using tools and programming patterns that they are already familiar with.
Drachtio is an open source project that comprises a high-performance, programmable SIP server along with a nodejs-based application framework that leverages common middleware patterns that a modern web developer will already know and love. It is the new kid on the block, but has been already deployed in multiple carrier and service provider networks around the world where it is used to deliver a wide range of VoIP applications and is carrying hundreds of millions of minutes per month. This talk will cover the drachtio architecture and programming model, position it relative to other VoIP projects such as Kamailio, Freeswitch and the rest of the gang, will describe some of the use case deployments, and provide the audience with an easy path to further explore and deploy VoIP services and back-end networks using it.
Dave has been “doing” VoIP since 2000, when he founded a SIP application server company (Pactolus Communication Software) that made and sold a commercial software-based application server/app suite to carriers and communication service providers worldwide. With customers ranging from Webex to Deutsche Telekom and many successful deployments under his belt, he learned quite a bit but increasingly saw both the challenges and opportunities created by the disruption that was the open source movement.
While on an extended “adventure sabbatical” a few years ago, mostly spent in beautiful Pembrokeshire Wales, he decided to create drachtio, an open source framework that at once combined his desires to work in the open source movement and to find a useful vessel in which to invest the knowledge that he had gained over the years in building and deploying VoIP networks and applications that had to be held to the highest standards of performance and reliability.
Dave loves writing software both for the web and VoIP and am enjoying being a part of working to see these two worlds come together.