NetHuddle — Multi-Protocol Real-Time Communication Platform
NetHuddle demonstrates when to use which protocol: TCP-oriented reliability for chunked file transfer, WebSocket/Socket.IO for chat, signaling, and browser-friendly uploads, WebRTC for low-latency peer media with STUN/TURN hooks, and QUIC over HTTP/3 (Python aioquic) for experimental low-latency streaming with WebTransport/fallback considerations. The server exposes REST + WS APIs for rooms (chat/video/streaming types), RBAC-style membership, network subnet discovery with TTL-cleaned sessions, friend relationships, and QUIC session tokens. Observability includes prom-client middleware with HTTP, WebSocket, file transfer, WebRTC, QUIC, and DB histograms, plus a frontend metrics dashboard. Documentation is extensive: architecture, phased delivery status, security (Helmet, rate limits, validation), and known limits (QUIC browser support, TURN dependency, horizontal scaling without Redis).
Timeline
Multi-phase
Role
Full-Stack / Systems Developer
Team
Solo
Status
Technology Stack
Key Features
Key Learnings
- End-to-end ownership of signaling, media, and transfer state machines
- Prometheus instrumentation patterns for Node services
- Pragmatic security defaults (JWT RS256, Joi, rate limiting) on a large route surface
- Documenting known production gaps honestly (group WebRTC, persisted metrics)
Key Challenges
- NAT traversal and mandatory TURN in restrictive networks
- Browser limitations on raw TCP; maintaining parallel server and browser protocols
- WebTransport/QUIC maturity and fallback strategy
- Socket.IO horizontal scaling without Redis adapter
- Metrics cardinality and overhead vs observability value