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PulseBeam

PulseBeam is an open source, general-purpose WebRTC SFU server for connecting browsers, mobile, and IoT clients. We believe real-time application development shouldn't be complicated, nor should it rely on heavy architectures with many moving parts. PulseBeam reduces this friction by adhering to these core design goals:

• Support all WebRTC clients.
• Keep the architecture simple, but not simpler.
• Natively support vertical and horizontal scaling.
• Provide client SDKs strictly for convenience, not necessity.
• Require minimal configuration.

If your client device speaks WebRTC, it can communicate with PulseBeam.

Compatibility

PulseBeam is opinionated about media handling to prioritize battery efficiency, hardware support, and predictable performance:

• Video: H.264 Baseline profile up to Level 4.1
• Audio: Opus
• Data Channel: Planned

Architecture

The architecture is highly inspired by SDN architecture.

Quickstart

The following quickstart assumes that you have a Linux machine. As a fallback, you can go to https://pulsebeam.dev/#quickstart and check the "fallback" toggle.

Step 1. Run the PulseBeam Server

Docker/Podman (recommended):

docker run --rm --net=host ghcr.io/pulsebeamdev/pulsebeam:pulsebeam-v0.2.23

Open Port Requirements:

• TCP/3000: HTTP signaling
• UDP/3478: WebRTC traffic (Multiplexed)
• TCP/3478: WebRTC over TCP fallback (Multiplexed) — Planned

Other options:

• Binary: download from Releases
• Source: cargo run --release -p pulsebeam

Step 2. Publish a video

Run the following snippet in the browser console:

const pc = new RTCPeerConnection();
const stream = await navigator.mediaDevices.getUserMedia({ video: true });
const transceiver = pc.addTransceiver("video", {
  direction: "sendonly",
  // Define scalability layers (low, medium, high)
  sendEncodings: [
    { rid: "q", scaleResolutionDownBy: 4, maxBitrate: 150_000 },
    { rid: "h", scaleResolutionDownBy: 2, maxBitrate: 400_000 },
    { rid: "f", scaleResolutionDownBy: 1, maxBitrate: 1_250_000 },
  ],
});
transceiver.sender.replaceTrack(stream.getVideoTracks()[0]);

const offer = await pc.createOffer();
await pc.setLocalDescription(offer);

const res = await fetch("http://localhost:3000/api/v1/rooms/demo", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { "Content-Type": "application/sdp" },
  body: offer.sdp
});

await pc.setRemoteDescription({ type: "answer", sdp: await res.text() });

Step 3. View the video stream

Go to https://codepen.io/lherman-cs/pen/pvgVZar, then put "demo" as the room to connect to.

Roadmap

• ✅ Prototype: Rust SFU + demo apps
• ✅ Bandwidth estimator, simulcast support
• 🚧 Top-N audio selection, Data channel, Web Client SDK
• 📅 HTTP API & Webhooks (events)
• 📅 Multi-node / cascading SFU support
• 📅 Extensions: recording, SIP, AI agents