Jim Machi : Industry Insight
Jim Machi

January 2017

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Benefits of a Hybrid SFU-MCU WebRTC Architecture

January 31, 2017


Multipoint control unit architectures are ideal for when compute and bandwidth are limited and there is a need for interoperability with disparate networks, but come at a cost of high server load and limiting video layout. On the other hand, selective forwarding unit topologies are ideal for high server performance and maximum flexibility for the client UI but come at a cost of requiring all connecting clients to share the same codec, frame-rate,

A hybrid-SFU/MCU topology allows for the media stream to be delivered based on the preference optimized for the individual client.  For example, in cases where the client is a mobile or SIP device the media server can deliver a single MCU-type mixed stream.

WebRTC SFU Architecture = Champion of Large Scale Video Conferences

January 24, 2017


Whether it’s one bad connection degrading the quality of the entire conference, or problems with the underlying media server or conference call architecture, a poor conferencing experience is avoidable. For large scale video conferences, the Selective Forwarding Unit (SFU) architecture may be a good way to go.

SFU is a topology allowing for clients to send their encoded video stream to the centralized media server where it is then forwarded/routed to the other clients. The SFU topology is an attractive approach to addressing the server performance issue, as it doesn’t involve the compute expense of video decoding and encoding.

WebRTC MCU Architecture - All For One And One For All

January 17, 2017



The conferencing market is huge. It was expected to be over $2B in size in 2016.  And with good reason – it fulfills a business need to talk to, and interact with each other through voice and video and various collaboration techniques such as whiteboarding.  But we’ve all been on large conference calls at work where people are added and then you can very visibly tell that the performance had degraded. 

IoT + Real Time Communications = Internet of Real Time Communications

January 10, 2017



Over the summer, I wrote about how Internet of Things will sometimes need to merge with Real Time Communications.  Dialogic even created an infographic on this concept.  Let me explain more since I’ve had a few questions come in since then.

IoT in its simplest form is basically sensors sending data. 

VoWiFi and Value-Added Services

January 3, 2017

Skype for Business, Google Hangouts, various other so-called Over the Top providers, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon - they all offer VoWiFi.  And it is expected that VoWiFi minutes are going to surpass VoLTE by 2019.   So if you are a provider of value-added services to the mobile providers, VoWiFi support needs to become part of your offering.

There are many implications and technical hurdles to overcome to make this happen. 

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