Traversal Using Relays around NAT
~15-20% of WebRTC calls require TURN relay because both peers are behind symmetric NAT. Without TURN, those calls fail silently.
What It Defines
When direct peer-to-peer is blocked by NAT/firewalls, TURN relays media through a server. Acts as a fallback for ICE when all direct candidate pairs fail. Essential for reliable WebRTC at scale.
Canonical (Normative)
Convenient (Practical)
The canonical publication point for finalized RFCs. If a protocol is standardized as an RFC, the RFC Editor text is the normative final reference. Published by the IETF, IRTF, IAB, and independent stream.
Related Specs
STUN is how WebRTC discovers the public-facing address for peer-to-peer connections. Every WebRTC deployment needs a STUN server.
NAT traversal is why WebRTC calls fail. ICE is how browsers find a working path between peers. Know it when debugging call connectivity failures.
Video calls (Meet, Zoom web), voice calls, peer-to-peer file transfer, and collaborative tools. The browser API surface for real-time A/V communication.