P2P with Adobe Flash Collaboration Service

June 3rd, 2009

Maybe you are asking, what is the main difference between core Flash P2P done by yourself and P2P implementation in AFCS.

Note:
- RMTPS refers to TCP hub-and-spoke only centralized communication via FMS CDN of AFCS
- RTMFP refers to UDP P2P (peer-to-peer) connections between N clients (not only 2), but is also suitable for hub-and-spoke

FAQ:

1. How can I setup AFCS to use P2P?
First you need to use afcs.swc library from Player10 folder and then you need to change protocol of AdobeHSAuthenticator -> auth.protocol=”rtmfp”; (instead of default auth.protocol=”rtmps”;) AFCS will try to establish connection using rtmfp. If connection cannot be established using RTMFP, it falls back to RTMPS.

In future version of AFCS, there is going to be automatic check for this. The aim is to have P2P used in every possible case, which makes AFCS very strong framework.

btw: Implementation of more than 2 peers is not easy. (just for example, with 3 peers, you need to handle already 6 different streams [IN/OUT])

2. Who decides what kind of communication is used in the room?
The room type (RTMFP or RTMPS) is set by first person coming in - most probably OWNER of the room

3. What if others in the same room can’t connect via RTMFP?
Then the communication is automatically downgraded to RTMPS hub and spoke.

4. When RTMFP is working well, is Audio/Video transfer among users done using P2P?
Yes! AudioPublisher, AudioSubscriber and WebCamera are communicating using P2P.

5. Are messaging features and sharedModel package classes (SharedProperty…) done using P2P?
No. There are really many messaging features in AFCS and considering all persmissions and contention management - there need to be one point of authority.

6. Is file sharing (FilePublisher, FileSubscriber) done using P2P?
No. This is still done using AFCS server.

7. Are AFCS user roles and rights regarding Audio/Video reflected into P2P?
Yes!

Useful links:
- Justin Everett Church’s blog P2P FAQ:
http://justin.everett-church.com/index.php/2008/05/23/astrop2p/
- Nigel Pegg (AFCS achitect) blog post on implementing P2P into AFCS:
http://blogs.adobe.com/collabmethods/2008/12/try_rtmfp_and_clienttoclient_d.html

If you haven’t started yet with P2P in Flash, try this videotutorial.

Posted in Tutorial |