WebRTC, the HTML5-based technology which supports voice and video chat from the browser, is expected to enable many new mobile web services, and so has become the center of a power struggle.
The technology allows programmers to build real time voice and video chat applications which execute within the browser interface without plug-ins. In mobile, it has mainly been seen as a way for over-the-top suppliers to steal yet more of the operators’ points of control, such as voice traffic, and so Google has been an enthusiastic deployer and driver. It implemented WebRTC in its Chrome browser in 2012, but the following year, Ericsson came up with its own offering, an experimental product called Bowser, designed to help its cellco customers to embrace WebRTC not fight it.
Now Bowser has been relaunched, in an iOS version, after it was pulled in February on the basis that it was no longer needed, since both Chrome and Firefox were supporting WebRTC on Android. However, iOS remained outside the gate, and so, if it is approved for the App Store, the relaunched Bowser will be the only iOS browser to support WebRTC and will also provide a welcome alternative for developers to Google’s implementation of the standard.
Ericsson has also released the underlying OpenWebRTC client framework as free and open source. Stefan Ålund, Ericsson Research’s manager of media applications and protocols, told GigaOM that the reborn Bowser was not just for testing out ideas, as it had been previously, but something more ambitious, because the whole framework is available, and this can be used to build native WebRTC apps on most operating systems including iOS, Linux, Mac OS X and Android.
Google’s implementation of the standard is quite mature now and powers all the WebRTC browsers except Ericsson’s, but Ålund said: “We believe the fact that there is only one implementation is not good for the standard. WebRTC is a standard defined in the W3C and IETF. It’s important to have competing implementations. They should be developed independently but still interoperable… We want to provide a second or an alternative implementation for developers to make it a bit more clear, the distinction between an implementation and the standard.” He claims Ericsson’s version is very flexible and modular, and is based on a mature open source media framework, GStreamer.
Apple may finally offer its own alternative, having recently joined the WebRTC working group.
Ericsson has also been working hard on methods to connect WebRTC browsers and activities into a full IMS framework, to attract programmers and content producers to platforms controlled by the cellcos.
This is where the real agenda may be seen. Like efforts to expose carriers’ network APIs to developers, allowing them to deliver functionality which would not be possible in OTT-only environments, Bowser also looks to showcase the advantages of tying apps closely to the functionality inherent in the telco network.
While some operators have gone cold on IMS, and are looking to deploy fully over-the-top services themselves, most expect full IMS-based services to be a driver of LTE differentiation and revenues. For instance, IMS-based VoLTE is being launched promising functions which will be hard to match in a pure OTT VoIP offering. But IP is not enough – users in future will expect voice and video to be fully integrated into the browser, hence why a development like Bowser, which supports these facilities in a standard way but retains ties to IMS, is important.