WebRTC Extensions

W3C Editor's Draft

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Abstract

This document defines a set of ECMAScript APIs in WebIDL to extend the WebRTC 1.0 API.

Status of This Document

This section describes the status of this document at the time of its publication. A list of current W3C publications and the latest revision of this technical report can be found in the W3C standards and drafts index at https://www.w3.org/TR/.

The API is based on preliminary work done in the W3C WEBRTC Working Group.

This document was published by the Web Real-Time Communications Working Group as an Editor's Draft.

Publication as an Editor's Draft does not imply endorsement by W3C and its Members.

This is a draft document and may be updated, replaced or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to cite this document as other than work in progress.

This document was produced by a group operating under the W3C Patent Policy. W3C maintains a public list of any patent disclosures made in connection with the deliverables of the group; that page also includes instructions for disclosing a patent. An individual who has actual knowledge of a patent which the individual believes contains Essential Claim(s) must disclose the information in accordance with section 6 of the W3C Patent Policy.

This document is governed by the 03 November 2023 W3C Process Document.

Introduction

This document contains proposed extensions to the [WEBRTC] specification. Some of these extensions were originally included within the [WEBRTC] specification, but needed to be removed due to lack of implementation experience. Others were not sufficiently mature to be incorporated into that specification when they were developed, but were too small to warrant creation of a separate document.

This document contains some sections extending one specific interface or dictionary in the base specification; in this case the extension is only described in an individual section. Where an extension affects multiple interfaces or dictionaries, a subsection in the "Overviews" section describes the extension as a whole, while normative text is provided in sections relating to the individual interfaces.

As extensions mature and gain implementation experience, they may move from this document to the base specification if WG consensus emerges to do so.

Conformance

As well as sections marked as non-normative, all authoring guidelines, diagrams, examples, and notes in this specification are non-normative. Everything else in this specification is normative.

The key words MAY, MUST, MUST NOT, and SHOULD in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all capitals, as shown here.

This specification defines conformance criteria that apply to a single product: the user agent that implements the interfaces that it contains.

Conformance requirements phrased as algorithms or specific steps may be implemented in any manner, so long as the end result is equivalent. (In particular, the algorithms defined in this specification are intended to be easy to follow, and not intended to be performant.)

Implementations that use ECMAScript to implement the APIs defined in this specification MUST implement them in a manner consistent with the ECMAScript Bindings defined in the Web IDL specification [WEBIDL], as this specification uses that specification and terminology.

Terminology

The following terms are defined in RTP Header Extension for Absolute Capture Time:

The process of forming a candidate pair is defined in [RFC8445] Section 6.1.2.2.

The process of nominating a candidate pair is defined in [RFC8445] Section 8.1.1.

The process of freeing a candidate is defined in [RFC8445] Section 8.3.

Filtering ICE candidates with Content-Security-Policy

The RTCPeerConnection interface is defined in [WEBRTC]. This document extends that interface by using Content-Security-Policy for ICE candidate filtering.

Modifications to existing procedures

Append the following paragraph to the administratively prohibited algorithm:

If should RTC connections be blocked for global? with the relevant global object of the RTCPeerConnection object in question returns "Blocked", then all candidates MUST be administratively prohibited.

RTP header extension control

RTP header extension control is an extension to RTCRtpTransceiver that allows to set and query the RTP header extensions supported and negotiated in SDP.

The RTP header extension mechanism is defined in [RFC8285], with the SDP negotiation mechanism defined in section 5. It goes into some detail on the meaning of "direction" with regard to RTP header extensions, and gives a detailed procedure for negotiating RTP header extension IDs.

This API extension gives the means to control the use and direction of RTP header extensions as documented in [RFC8285]. It does not influence the ID negotiation mechanism, except for being able to control the number of extensions offered.

RTCRtpTransceiver interface extensions

The RTCRtpTransceiver interface is defined in [WEBRTC]. This document extends that interface by adding an additional method and attribute in order to control negotiation of RTP header extensions.

WebIDLpartial dictionary RTCRtpHeaderExtensionCapability {
  required RTCRtpTransceiverDirection direction;
};

partial interface RTCRtpTransceiver {
  sequence<RTCRtpHeaderExtensionCapability> getHeaderExtensionsToNegotiate();
  undefined setHeaderExtensionsToNegotiate(
      sequence<RTCRtpHeaderExtensionCapability> extensions);
  sequence<RTCRtpHeaderExtensionCapability> getNegotiatedHeaderExtensions();
};

Let [[HeaderExtensionsToNegotiate]] and [[NegotiatedHeaderExtensions]] be internal slots of the RTCRtpTransceiver, initialized as follows:

  1. Set [[HeaderExtensionsToNegotiate]] to the platform-specific list of implemented RTP header extensions. The direction attribute for all extensions that are mandatory to use MUST be initialized to an appropriate value other than "stopped". The direction attribute for extensions that will not be offered by default in an initial offer MUST be initialized to "stopped".

    Note

    The list of header extensions that MUST/SHOULD be supported is listed in [RTCWEB-RTP], section 5.2. The "mid" extension is mandatory to use when BUNDLE is in use, per [BUNDLE] section 9.1.

  2. Set [[NegotiatedHeaderExtensions]] to an empty list.

Modifications to existing procedures

Make the following modifications to the set a session description algorithm:

In the algorithms for generating initial offers in [RTCWEB-JSEP] section 5.2.1, replace "for each supported RTP header extension, an "a=extmap" line, as specified in [RFC5285], section 5" " with "For each RTP header extension "e" listed in [[HeaderExtensionsToNegotiate]] where direction is not "stopped", an "a=extmap" line, as specified in [RFC5285], section 5, with direction taken from "e"'s direction attribute."

In the algorithm for generating subsequent offers in [RTCWEB-JSEP] section 5.2.2, replace "The RTP header extensions MUST only include those that are present in the most recent answer" with "For each RTP header extension listed in [[HeaderExtensionsToNegotiate]], and where direction is not "stopped", generate an appropriate "a=extmap" line with "direction" set according to the rules of [RFC5285] section 6, considering the direction in [[HeaderExtensionsToNegotiate]] to indicate the answerer's desired usage".

In the algorithm for generating initial answers in [RTCWEB-JSEP] section 5.3.1, replace "For each supported RTP header extension that is present in the offer" with "For each supported RTP header extension that is present in the offer and is also present in [[HeaderExtensionsToNegotiate]] with a direction different from "stopped", set the appropriate direction based on direction that does not exceed the direction in the offer".

Note

Since JSEP does not know about WebRTC internal slots, merging this change requires more work on a JSEP revision.

Methods

getHeaderExtensionsToNegotiate

Execute the following steps:

  1. Let transceiver be the RTCRtpTransceiver that this method was invoked on.

  2. Return transceiver.[[HeaderExtensionsToNegotiate]].

setHeaderExtensionsToNegotiate

Execute the following steps:

  1. Let transceiver be the RTCRtpTransceiver that this method was invoked on.

  2. Let extensions be the first argument of this method.

  3. If the size of extensions does not match the size of transceiver.[[HeaderExtensionsToNegotiate]] throw an InvalidModificationError.

  4. For each index i of extensions, run the following steps:

    1. Let extension be the i-th element of extensions.

    2. If extension.uri is not equal to the uri of the i-th element of transceiver.[[HeaderExtensionsToNegotiate]], throw an InvalidModificationError.

    3. If extension.direction is not "sendrecv" and uri indicates a mandatory-to-use attribute that is required to be both sent and received, throw an InvalidModificationError.

    4. If extension.direction is "stopped" and uri indicates a mandatory-to-implement extension, throw an InvalidModificationError.

    5. If necessary, restrict extension.direction as to not exceed the user agent's capabilities for this extension.

  5. Set transceiver.[[HeaderExtensionsToNegotiate]] to extensions.

getNegotiatedHeaderExtensions

Execute the following steps:

  1. Let transceiver be the RTCRtpTransceiver that this method was invoked on.

  2. Return transceiver.[[NegotiatedHeaderExtensions]].

RTCRtpEncodingParameters extensions

The RTCRtpEncodingParameters dictionary is defined in [WEBRTC]. This document extends that dictionary with additional members to control audio packetization.

WebIDLpartial dictionary RTCRtpEncodingParameters {
    RTCResolutionRestriction scaleResolutionDownTo;
    unsigned long            ptime;
    boolean                  adaptivePtime = false;
};

Dictionary RTCRtpEncodingParameters Members

scaleResolutionDownTo of type RTCResolutionRestriction

The maximum dimensions at which to restrict this encoding.

When scaleResolutionDownTo is specified, the scaleResolutionDownBy value MUST be ignored. Instead, frames are sent according to the specified resolution restrictions: frames MUST NOT be upscaled.

When configuring parameters, the following validation MUST be performed if scaleResolutionDownTo is specified on any encoding or else addTransceiver() throws a newly created OperationError and setParameters() rejects with a newly created InvalidModificationError:

ptime of type unsigned long

The preferred duration of media represented by a packet in milliseconds.

(Feature at Risk) Issue 1

ptime was moved from [WEBRTC] to this specification due to lack of support from implementers. It is therefore marked as a feature at risk.

adaptivePtime of type boolean, defaulting to false.

Indicates whether this encoding MAY dynamically change the frame length. If the value is true, the user agent MAY use any valid frame length for any of its frames, and MAY change this at any time. Valid values are multiples of 10ms. If the maxptime attribute (defined in [RFC4566] Section 6) is specified, that maximum applies. If the value is false, the user agent MUST use a fixed frame length.

If adaptivePtime is set to true, ptime MUST NOT be set; otherwise, InvalidModificationError MUST be thrown.

Note

Using a longer frame length reduces the bandwidth consumption due to overhead, but does so at the cost of increased latency. Changing the frame length dynamically allows the user agent to adapt its bandwidth allocation strategy based on the current network conditions.

The RTCResolutionRestriction dictionary.

WebIDLdictionary RTCResolutionRestriction {
    unsigned long maxWidth;
    unsigned long maxHeight;
};

Dictionary RTCResolutionRestriction Members

maxWidth of type unsigned long

The maximum width that frames will be encoded with. The restrictions are orientation agnostic, see note below. When scaling is applied, both dimensions of the frame MUST be downscaled using the same factor.

maxHeight of type unsigned long

The maximum height that frames will be encoded with. The restrictions are orientation agnostic, see note below. When scaling is applied, both dimensions of the frame MUST be downscaled using the same factor.

Note

The restrictions being orientation agnostic means that they will automatically be adjusted to the orientation of the frame being restricted (portrait mode or landscape mode) by swapping width and height if necessary. This means that it does not matter if 1280x720 or 720x1280 is specified, both always result in the exact same scaling factor regardless of the orientation of the frame.

RTCRtpSender setParameters() extensions for requesting the generation of a key frame.

The RTCRtpSender's setParameters() method is defined in [WEBRTC]. This document extends the optional second argument to request generation of a key frame by the encoder.

WebIDLpartial dictionary RTCSetParameterOptions {
  sequence<RTCEncodingOptions> encodingOptions = [];
};

dictionary RTCEncodingOptions {
  boolean keyFrame = false;
};

Dictionary RTCSetParameterOptions Members

The RTCSetParameterOptions are extended by a sequence of RTCEncodingOptions, one for each encoding.

encodingOptions of type sequence<RTCEncodingOptions>, defaulting to [].

A sequence containing encoding options for each RTP encoding.

Dictionary RTCEncodingOptions Members

RTCEncodingOptions is the WebRTC equivalent of VideoEncoderEncodeOptions in [WebCodecs].

keyFrame of type boolean, defaulting to false.

When set to true, request that RTCRtpSender's encoder generates a keyframe for the encoding. The semantic of this boolean is similar to the RTCP FIR message described in [RFC5104], section 3.5.1.

RTCRtpSender setParameters() modifications to existing procedures

In the steps to call the setParameters() method, let parameters be the method's first argument and let setParameterOptions be the method's second argument.

Append the following steps after the steps to validate the parameters:

In the steps to configure the media stack to use parameters, append the following step:

Note

setParameters() does not wait for a key frame to be produced by the encoder.

RTCIceTransport extensions

The RTCIceTransport interface is defined in [WEBRTC]. This document extends that interface to allow an application to observe and affect certain actions that an ICE agent [RFC5245] performs.

The ICE agent performs connectivity checks to identify valid candidate pairs on which it is possible to send and receive media and data. In order to conclude ICE processing, the ICE agent nominates a valid candidate pair as the selected candidate pair. Prior to nomination, any valid candidate pair may be used to send and receive data. Once a candidate pair is nominated successfully, only the selected candidate pair will be used to send and receive data. Changing the selected candidate pair after a successful nomination requires an ICE restart.

When the ICE agent has formed a candidate pair, the user agent MUST queue a task to add a candidate pair:

  1. Let connection be the RTCPeerConnection object associated with this ICE agent.

  2. If connection.[[IsClosed]] is true, abort these steps.

  3. Let candidatePair be a new RTCIceCandidatePair dictionary with its local and remote members initialized to new RTCIceCandidates representing the local and remote part of the formed pair respectively.

  4. Let transport be the RTCIceTransport object associated with candidatePair.

  5. Assert: candidatePair does not match any item in transport.[[CandidatePairs]]

  6. Append candidatePair to [[CandidatePairs]].

  7. Fire an event named icecandidatepairadd at transport, using RTCIceCandidatePairEvent, with the local and remote attributes initialized to the local and remote candidates, respectively, of candidatePair.

When the ICE agent has picked a candidate pair to nominate as the selected candidate pair, the user agent MUST queue a task to nominate a candidate pair:

  1. Let connection be the RTCPeerConnection object associated with this ICE agent.

  2. If connection.[[IsClosed]] is true, abort these steps.

  3. Let transport be the RTCIceTransport object associated with this candidate pair.

  4. Let candidatePair be the candidate pair which is being nominated.

  5. Set transport.[[ProposalPending]] to true.

  6. Let accepted be the result of firing an event named icecandidatepairnominate at transport, using RTCIceCandidatePairEvent, with the cancelable attribute initialized to true, and the local and remote attributes initialized to the local and remote candidates, respectively, of candidatePair.

  7. Set transport.[[ProposalPending]] to false.

  8. If accepted is false, abort these steps and instruct the ICE agent to continue to perform connectivity checks.

  9. Otherwise, instruct the ICE agent to nominate the candidate pair indicated by candidatePair.

Note

The ICE agent will continue to send data using candidatePair until instructed to use another candidate pair with selectCandidatePair.

When the ICE agent has picked a candidate pair to remove, the user agent MUST queue a task to remove a candidate pair:

  1. Let connection be the RTCPeerConnection object associated with this ICE agent.

  2. If connection.[[IsClosed]] is true, abort these steps.

  3. Let candidatePair be the candidate pair which is being removed.

  4. Let transport be the RTCIceTransport object associated with candidatePair.

  5. Let cancelable be true if the candidate pair is being removed in order to free an unused candidate, and false otherwise.

  6. Set transport.[[ProposalPending]] to true.

  7. Let accepted be the result of firing an event named icecandidatepairremove at transport, using RTCIceCandidatePairEvent, with the cancelable attribute initialized to cancelable, and the local and remote attributes initialized to the local and remote candidates, respectively, of candidatePair.

  8. Set transport.[[ProposalPending]] to false.

  9. If accepted is false, instruct the ICE agent to not remove the candidate pair indicated by candidatePair, and instead continue to send and respond to ICE connectivity checks on the candidate pair as before.

  10. Otherwise (if accepted is true), run the following steps:

    1. Remove candidatePair from transport.[[CandidatePairs]].

    2. Instruct the ICE agent to remove the candidate pair indicated by candidatePair.

The RTCIceTransport object is extended by adding the following internal slots:

WebIDLpartial interface RTCIceTransport {
  attribute EventHandler onicecandidatepairadd;
  attribute EventHandler onicecandidatepairremove;
  attribute EventHandler onicecandidatepairnominate;
  Promise<undefined> selectCandidatePair(RTCIceCandidatePair candidatePair);
  Promise<undefined> removeCandidatePair(RTCIceCandidatePair candidatePair);
};

Attributes

onicecandidatepairadd of type EventHandler

The event type of this event handler is icecandidatepairadd, and is fired as part of the add a candidate pair algorithm.

onicecandidatepairremove of type EventHandler

The event type of this event handler is icecandidatepairremove, and is fired as part of the remove a candidate pair algorithm.

onicecandidatepairnominate of type EventHandler

The event type of this event handler is icecandidatepairnominate, and is fired as part of the nominate a candidate pair algorithm.

Methods

selectCandidatePair

The selectCandidatePair method attempts to select a different candidate pair to send data over. If successful, data will be sent on the provided candidate pair. It is meant to be called after the application defers the nomination of a candidate pair by cancelling the icecandidatepairnominate event.

When this method is invoked, the user agent MUST run the following steps:

  1. Let connection be the RTCPeerConnection object associated with this.

  2. If connection.[[IsClosed]] is true, throw an InvalidStateError.

  3. If this.[[ProposalPending]] is true, throw an InvalidStateError.

  4. If this.[[IceTransportState]] is either of "new", "failed" or "closed", throw an InvalidStateError.

  5. Let candidatePair be the method's first argument.

  6. If candidatePair does not match any item in this. [[CandidatePairs]], throw a NotFoundError.

  7. Let p be a new promise.

  8. In parallel, instruct the ICE agent to use candidatePair to send data.

    1. When the ICE agent has completed selecting candidatePair, queue a task to run the following steps:

      1. Run the change the selected candidate pair and state steps to update this.[[SelectedCandidatePair]] and this.[[IceTransportState]] as necessary and fire any associated events.

      2. Resolve p.

  9. Return p.

Note

After changing the selected candidate pair, the controlling ICE agent may attempt to nominate the candidate pair as well to conclude ICE processing. The application may cancel the nomination to allow further changes to the selected candidate pair.

removeCandidatePair

The removeCandidatePair method removes the provided candidate pair. The ICE agent will stop sending and responding to ICE connectivity checks on the removed candidate pair, and it can no longer be used to send data for this transport. This method is meant to be called when the application wants to allow the ICE agent to free candidates that it no longer needs.

When this method is invoked, the user agent MUST run the following steps:

  1. Let connection be the RTCPeerConnection object associated with this.

  2. If connection.[[IsClosed]] is true, throw an InvalidStateError.

  3. If this.[[ProposalPending]] is true, throw an InvalidStateError.

  4. If this.[[IceTransportState]] is either of "new", "failed" or "closed", throw an InvalidStateError.

  5. Let candidatePair be the method's first argument.

  6. If candidatePair does not match any item in this. [[CandidatePairs]], throw a NotFoundError.

  7. Remove the item in this.[[CandidatePairs]] that matches candidatePair.

  8. Let p be a new promise.

  9. In parallel, instruct the ICE agent to remove the candidate pair indicated by candidatePair.

    1. When the ICE agent has completed the removal, queue a task to run the following steps:

      1. Fire an event named icecandidatepairremove at transport, using RTCIceCandidatePairEvent, with the cancelable attribute initialized to false, and the local and remote attributes initialized to the local and remote candidates, respectively, of candidatePair.

      2. Resolve p.

  10. Return p.

RTCIceCandidatePairEvent

The icecandidatepairadd and icecandidatepairremove events use the RTCIceCandidatePairEvent interface.

WebIDL[Exposed=Window]
  interface RTCIceCandidatePairEvent : Event {
    constructor(DOMString type, RTCIceCandidatePairEventInit eventInitDict);
    readonly attribute RTCIceCandidate local;
    readonly attribute RTCIceCandidate remote;
  };

Constructors

RTCIceCandidatePairEvent.constructor()

Attributes

local of type RTCIceCandidate, readonly

The local attribute represents the local RTCIceCandidate of the candidate pair associated with the event.

remote of type RTCIceCandidate, readonly

The remote attribute represents the remote RTCIceCandidate of the candidate pair associated with the event.

WebIDLdictionary RTCIceCandidatePairEventInit : EventInit {
  required RTCIceCandidate local;
  required RTCIceCandidate remote;
};

Dictionary RTCIceCandidatePairEventInit Members

local of type RTCIceCandidate, required

The local RTCIceCandidate of the candidate pair announced by the event.

remote of type RTCIceCandidate, required

The remote RTCIceCandidate of the candidate pair announced by the event.

The candidate match algorithm given two RTCIceCandidate first and second is as follows:

  1. If first.candidate is not identical to second.candidate, return false.

  2. If either (but not both) of first.sdpMid and second.sdpMid is null, return false.

  3. If neither of first.sdpMid and second.sdpMid is null, and first.sdpMid is not identical to second.sdpMid, return false.

  4. If either (but not both) of first.sdpMLineIndex and second.sdpMLineIndex is null, return false.

  5. If neither of first.sdpMLineIndex and second.sdpMLineIndex is null and first.sdpMLineIndex is not equal to second.sdpMLineIndex, return false.

  6. If either (but not both) of first.usernameFragment and second.usernameFragment is null, return false.

  7. If neither of first.usernameFragment and second.usernameFragment is null and first.usernameFragment is not identical to second.usernameFragment, return false.

  8. Return true.

The candidate pair match algorithm given two RTCIceCandidatePair first and second is as follows:

  1. If first.local does not match second.local, return false.

  2. If first.remote does not match second.remote, return false.

  3. Return true.

RTCRtpContributingSource extensions

The RTCRtpContributingSource dictionary is defined in [WEBRTC]. This document extends that dictionary by adding two additional members.

In this section, the capture system refers to the system where media is sourced from and the sender system refers to the system that is sending RTP and RTCP packets to the receiver system where RTCRtpContributingSource data is populated.

In a direct connection, the capture system is the same as the sender system. But when one or more RTCP-terminating intermediate systems (e.g. mixers) are involved this is not the case. In such cases, media is sourced from the capture system, may be relayed through a number of intermediate systems and is then finally sent from the sender system to the receiver system. The sender system-receiver system path only represents the "last hop".

Despite RTCRemoteInboundRtpStreamStats.roundTripTime measurements only accounting for the "last hop", one-way delay from the capture system's time of capture to the receiver system's time of playout can be estimated if the RTP Header Extension for Absolute Capture Time is used all hops of the way, where each RTCP-terminating intermediate system appropriately updates the estimated capture clock offset.

WebIDLpartial dictionary RTCRtpContributingSource {
  DOMHighResTimeStamp captureTimestamp;
  DOMHighResTimeStamp senderCaptureTimeOffset;
};

Dictionary RTCRtpContributingSource Members

captureTimestamp of type DOMHighResTimeStamp.

The captureTimestamp is the timestamp that, the most recent frame (from an RTP packet originating from this source) delivered to the RTCRtpReceiver's MediaStreamTrack, was originally captured. Its reference clock is the capture system's NTP clock (same clock used to generate NTP timestamps for RTCP sender reports on that system).

On populating this member, the user agent MUST run the following steps:

  1. If the relevant RTP packet contains the RTP Header Extension for Absolute Capture Time, return the value of the absolute capture timestamp field and abort these steps.

  2. Otherwise, if the relevant RTP packet does not contain the RTP Header Extension for Absolute Capture Time but a previous RTP packet did, return the result of calculating the absolute capture timestamp according to timestamp interpolation and abort these steps.

  3. Otherwise, return undefined.
Note

If multiple receiving tracks are sourced from the same capture system, two captureTimestamps can be used to accurately measure audio-video synchronization since both timestamps are based on the same system's clock.

senderCaptureTimeOffset of type DOMHighResTimeStamp.

The senderCaptureTimeOffset is the sender system's estimate of the offset between its own NTP clock and the capture system's NTP clock, for the same frame that the captureTimestamp was originated from.

On populating this member, the user agent MUST run the following steps:

  1. If the relevant RTP packet contains the RTP Header Extension for Absolute Capture Time and the estimated capture clock offset field is present, return the value of the estimated capture clock offset field and abort these steps.

  2. Otherwise, if the relevant RTP packet does not contain the RTP Header Extension for Absolute Capture Time's estimated capture clock offset field, but a previous RTP packet did, return the most recent value that was present and abort these steps.

  3. Otherwise, return undefined.
Note

The time of capture can estimatedly be expressed in the sender system's clock as follows: senderCaptureTimestamp = captureTimestamp + senderCaptureTimeOffset.

Note

The offset between the sender system's clock and the receiver system's clock can be estimated as follows: senderReceiverTimeOffset = RTCRemoteOutboundRtpStreamStats.timestamp}} - (RTCRemoteOutboundRtpStreamStats.remoteTimestamp + RTCRemoteInboundRtpStreamStats.roundTripTime / 2).

Note

The time of capture can estimatedly be expressed in the receiver system's clock as follows: receiverCaptureTimestamp = senderCaptureTimestamp + senderReceiverTimeOffset.

Note

The one-way delay between the capture system's time of capture and the receiver system's time of playout can be estimated as follows: RTCRtpContributingSource.timestamp - receiverCaptureTimestamp.

Data Channel Extensions

Transferable Data Channels

This section extends RTCDataChannel by exposing it to any type of Worker (not just DedicatedWorker).

The WebIDL changes are the following:

WebIDL  [Exposed=(Window,Worker), Transferable]
  partial interface RTCDataChannel {
};

RTP Header Extension Encryption

RTCRtpHeaderEncryptionPolicy Enum

RTP header extension encryption policy affects whether RTP header extension encryption is negotiated if the remote endpoint does not support [RFC9335]. If the remote endpoint supports [RFC9335], all media streams are sent utilizing [RFC9335].

WebIDLenum RTCRtpHeaderEncryptionPolicy {
  "negotiate",
  "require"
};
Enumeration description (non-normative)
negotiate

Negotiate RTP header extension encryption as defined in [RFC9335]. If encryption cannot be negotiated, RTP header extensions are sent in the clear.

require

Require RTP header extension encryption. In [WEBRTC] Section 4.4.1.5, add the following check after Step 4.4.4: If remote is true, the connection's RTCRtpHeaderEncryptionPolicy is require and the description does not support [RFC9335], then reject p with a newly created InvalidAccessError and abort these steps.

RTCRtpTransceiver interface extensions

rtpHeaderEncryptionNegotiated defines whether the transceiver is sending enrypted RTP header extensions as defined in [RFC9335].

WebIDLpartial interface RTCRtpTransceiver {
  readonly attribute boolean rtpHeaderEncryptionNegotiated;
};

Attributes

rtpHeaderEncryptionNegotiated of type Boolean, readonly, nullable

The rtpHeaderEncryptionNegotiated attribute indicates whether [RFC9335] has been negotiated. On getting, the attribute MUST return the value of the [[RtpHeaderEncryptionNegotiated]] slot. In [WEBRTC] Section 5.4, add the following step to "create an RTCRtpTransceiver": Let transceiver have a [[RtpHeaderEncryptionNegotiated]] internal slot, initialized to false.

RTCConfiguration extensions

rtpHeaderEncryptionPolicy defines the policy for negotiation of RTP header encryption using [RFC9335].

WebIDLpartial dictionary RTCConfiguration {
  RTCRtpHeaderEncryptionPolicy rtpHeaderEncryptionPolicy = "negotiate";
};

Dictionary RTCConfiguration Members

rtpHeaderEncryptionPolicy of type RTCRtpHeaderEncryptionPolicy

(Feature at Risk) Issue 2

rtpHeaderEncryptionPolicy is marked as a feature at risk, since there is no clear commitment from implementers.

Disabling hardware acceleration

While hardware acceleration of video encoding and decoding is generally desirable, it has proven to be operationally challenging to achieve in the environment of a browser with no detailed information about the underlying hardware. In some cases, falling back to software encoding yields better results.

Note

The methods specified in this section should be used sparingly and not for extended amounts of time.

Note

In privacy-sensitive contexts, browsers may disable hardware acceleration by default to reduce the fingerprinting surface.

RTCRtpReceiver extensions

The RTCRtpReceiver interface is defined in [WEBRTC]. This document extends this interface by adding a static method and internal slot [[HardwareDisabled]] initialized to false.

WebIDLpartial interface RTCRtpReceiver {
  static undefined disableHardwareDecoding();
};

When the RTCRtpReceiver's disableHardwareDecoding method is called, the user agent MUST run the following steps:

  1. When the RTCPeerConnection.constructor() has been invoked abort these steps.

  2. Set the RTCRtpReceiver's [[HardwareDisabled]] slot to true.

RTCRtpSender extensions

The RTCRtpSender interface is defined in [WEBRTC]. This document extends this interface by adding a static method and internal slot [[HardwareDisabled]] initialized to false.

WebIDLpartial interface RTCRtpSender {
  static undefined disableHardwareEncoding();
};

When the RTCRtpSender's disableHardwareEncoding method is called, the user agent MUST run the following steps:

  1. When the RTCPeerConnection.constructor() has been invoked abort these steps.

  2. Set the RTCRtpSender's [[HardwareDisabled]] slot to true.

Modifications to existing procedures

In the set a session description algorithm, add a step right after the step that sets transceiver.[[Receiver]].[[ReceiveCodecs]], saying "If the RTCRtpReceiver's [[HardwareDisabled]] slot is true, remove any codec from transceiver.[[Receiver]].[[ReceiveCodecs]] for which the underlying decoder is hardware-accelerated".

In the set a session description algorithm, add a step right after the step that sets transceiver.[[Sender]].[[SendCodecs]], saying "If the RTCRtpSender's [[HardwareDisabled]] slot is true, remove any codec from transceiver.[[Sender]].[[SendCodecs]] for which the underlying encoder is hardware-accelerated".

Event summary

The following events fire on RTCIceTransport objects:

Event name Interface Fired when...
icecandidatepairadd RTCIceCandidatePairEvent The ICE agent has formed a candidate pair and is making it available to the script.
icecandidatepairremove RTCIceCandidatePairEvent The ICE agent has picked a candidate pair to remove, and unless the operation is canceled by invoking the preventDefault() method on the event, it will be removed.
icecandidatepairnominate RTCIceCandidatePairEvent The ICE agent has picked a valid candidate pair to nominate, and unless the operation is canceled by invoking the preventDefault() method on the event, it will be nominated.

Security Considerations

This section is non-normative; it specifies no new behaviour. The overall security considerations of the general set of APIs and protocols used in WebRTC are described in [RFC8827].

Impact on local network

The extensions defined in this document do not provide additional impact on the local network beyond what is described in [WEBRTC] Section 13.3.

Confidentiality of Communications

This document defines extensions for encryption of RTP Header Extensions which improve the confidentiality of communications by encrypting header extension IDs, as well as CSRCs.

Privacy Considerations

This section is non-normative; it specifies no new behaviour.

Revealing IP addresses

The extensions defined in this document do not reveal additional information on IP addresses beyond that already described in [WEBRTC] Section 13.2.

Persistent information exposed by WebRTC

The extensions defined in this document do not provide additional persistent information beyond that which is discussed in [WEBRTC] Section 13.5.

Accessibility Considerations

The WebRTC 1.0 specification exposes an API to control protocols (defined within the IETF) necessary to establish real-time audio, video and data exchange. Real-Time Text, defined in [RFC4103], is supported via the data channel API as described in [WEBRTC] Section 14. The extensions defined in this document do not affect support for Real-Time Text.

Acknowledgements

The editors wish to thank the Working Group chairs and Team Contact, Dominique Hazaël-Massieux, for their support. Substantial text in this specification was provided by many people including Harald Alvestrand, Justin Uberti and Peter Thatcher.

The RTCRtpSender and RTCRtpReceiver objects were initially described in the W3C ORTC CG, and have been adapted for use in this specification.