PeerTube/ARCHITECTURE.md
2018-10-14 21:08:52 +02:00

2.2 KiB

Architecture

Vocabulary

  • Fediverse: several servers following one another, several users following each other. Designates federated communities in general.
  • Vidiverse: same as Fediverse, but federating videos specifically.
  • Instance: a server which runs PeerTube in the fediverse.
  • Origin instance: the instance on which the video was uploaded and which is seeding (through the WebSeed protocol) the video.
  • Cache instance: an instance that decided to make available a WebSeed of its own for a video originating from another instance. It sends a ptCache activity to notify the origin instance, which will then update its list of WebSeeds for the video.
  • Following: the action of a PeerTube instance which will follow another instance (subscribe to its videos).

Base

Communications

Instance

  • An instance has a websocket tracker which is responsible for all videos uploaded by its users.
  • An instance has an administrator that can follow other instances.
  • An instance can be configured to follow back automatically.
  • An instance can blacklist other instances (only used in "follow back" mode).
  • An instance cannot choose which other instances follow it, but it can decide to reject all followers.
  • After having uploaded a video, the instance seeds it (WebSeed protocol).
  • If a user wants to watch a video, they ask its instance the magnet URI and the frontend adds the torrent (with WebTorrent), creates the HTML5 video player and streams the file into it.
  • A user watching a video seeds it too (BitTorrent). Thus another user who is watching the same video can get the data from the origin server and other users watching it.