Development of a Cloud-Based WebRTC VoIP Application Using the Docker Platform for an Educational Environment

Аннотация

 The development of real-time communication systems has become increasingly important for educational institutions seeking flexible, scalable, and cost-effective digital learning environments. This paper presents the design, implementation, and performance evaluation of a cloud-based WebRTC Voice over IP application deployed through Docker container technology and integrated into an educational e-learning system. The proposed solution enables secure browser-based audio and video communication between instructors and students, as well as among students, without requiring additional plugins or native software installation. The application architecture is based on multiple containerized microservices, including database, WebSocket, Apache, and Nginx components, hosted within the Microsoft Azure cloud environment. To assess the efficiency of the proposed model, performance testing was conducted across three deployment infrastructures: bare-metal server, virtual server, and Docker-based platform. The evaluation included application deployment time, startup time, system restart time, and response time under different numbers of concurrent sessions. The results indicate that the Docker-based implementation achieved the best overall performance, with substantially shorter deployment and startup times and lower response latency compared with both bare-metal and virtualized alternatives. These findings confirm that containerized WebRTC infrastructure can improve scalability, maintainability, and responsiveness in educational communication systems. The study contributes a practical implementation model for integrating real-time VoIP and video communication into e-learning platforms, particularly for institutions seeking open-source, cloud-ready, and resource-efficient communication solutions.