38. Amazon Kinesis Video Streams

Overview

• Amazon Kinesis Video Streams is a fully managed AWS service that you can use to stream live video from devices to the AWS Cloud, or build applications for real-time video processing or batch-oriented video analytics.
• Kinesis Video Streams isn't just storage for video data. You can use it to watch your video streams in real time as they are received in the cloud. 
• You can use Kinesis Video Streams to capture massive amounts of live video data from millions of sources, including smartphones, security cameras, webcams, cameras embedded in cars, drones, and other sources. You can also send non-video time-serialized data such as audio data, thermal imagery, depth data, RADAR data, and more. 
• You can also configure your Kinesis video stream to durably store media data for the specified retention period. 
• Benefits of using Kinesis Video Streams include the following:
  • Connect and stream from millions of devices
  • Durably store, encrypt, and index data 
  • Focus on managing applications instead of infrastructure – Kinesis Video Streams is serverless, so there is no infrastructure to set up or manage. 
  • Build real-time and batch applications on data streams
  • Stream data more securely – Kinesis Video Streams encrypts all data as it flows through the service and when it persists the data.
  • Pay as you go

Architecture

•  Producer – Any source that puts data into a Kinesis video stream.
  • Kinesis Video Streams Producer libraries – A set of easy-to-use software and libraries that you can install and configure on your devices.
• Kinesis video stream – A resource that enables you to transport live video data, optionally store it, and make the data available for consumption both in real time and on a batch or ad hoc basis.
• Consumer – Gets data, such as fragments and frames, from a Kinesis video stream to view, process, or analyze it. 
  • Generally these consumers are called Kinesis Video Streams applications.
  • Multiple independent applications can consume a Kinesis video stream in parallel.
  • Kinesis Video Stream Parser Library – Enables Kinesis Video Streams applications to reliably get media from Kinesis video streams in a low-latency manner

Amazon Kinesis Video Streams with WebRTC

• WebRTC is an open technology specification for enabling real-time communication (RTC) across browsers and mobile applications via simple APIs.
• Amazon Kinesis Video Streams provides a standards-compliant WebRTC implementation as a fully managed capability.
• You can use Amazon Kinesis Video Streams with WebRTC to securely live stream media or perform two-way audio or video interaction between any camera IoT device and WebRTC-compliant mobile or web players. 
• Using Kinesis Video Streams with WebRTC, you can easily build applications for live peer-to-peer media streaming, or real-time audio or video interactivity between camera IoT devices, web browsers, and mobile devices for a variety of use cases.
  • Such applications can help parents keep an eye on their baby’s room,
  • enable homeowners to use a video doorbell to check who’s at the door

Concepts

• Signaling channel
  • Signaling messages are metadata that two applications exchange with each other to establish peer-to-peer connectivity.
  • A resource that enables applications to discover, set up, control, and terminate a peer-to-peer connection by exchanging signaling messages.
  • A signaling channel enables applications to connect with each other in a one-to-few model, using the concept of one master connecting to multiple viewers. 
  • Up to 10 applications can then connect to that signaling channel by assuming the viewer responsibility by invoking the ConnectAsViewer API
• Peer
  • Any device or application (for example, a mobile or web application, webcam, home security camera, baby monitor, etc.) that is configured for real-time, two-way streaming through a Kinesis Video Streams with WebRTC.
• Master
  • A peer that initiates the connection and is connected to the signaling channel with the ability to discover and exchange media with any of the signaling channel's connected viewers.

• Viewer
  • A peer that is connected to the signaling channel with the ability to discover and exchange media only with the signaling channel's master.

Reference

What Is Amazon Kinesis Video Streams? - Amazon Kinesis Video Streams

What Is Amazon Kinesis Video Streams with WebRTC - Kinesis Video Streams