Video conference max_video_streams hard-coded limit

[keld_eng]

On this page “https://www.asterisk.org/asterisk-15-multi-stream-media-sfu/” we are informed that “there is a hard limit, set within pjproject, to the total number of streams allowed (for all combinations). If using “pjproject bundled” for Asterisk this number is currently set to 16.”

A maximum number of 16 streams means that a video conference can have a maximum number of 15 participants: 1 audio stream with the combined audio tracks of all the participants and 15 individual video streams, one for each participant. Please tell us, why did you set this limit for the maximum number of video streams allowed in a video conference ?

Aren’t these types of limits the thing that we hated so much in proprietary software ? Why didn’t you leave the hardware and the Internet bandwidth to be the only limits for the maximum number of participants in a video conference ?

If you value the principles of free and open source software and the work of all the people who contributed to Asterisk over time guided by these principles, please tell us what file do we have to modify to change this hard-coded limit from 16 to something else.

[jcolp]

PJSIP is an external project[1] and is designed with having a limit in place, likely for embedded solutions to reduce memory usage. The number itself is configurable when building PJSIP and is done using the config_site.h file[2]. We haven’t increased it as there hasn’t been any feedback stating that in practice this has been a problem.

[1] https://www.pjsip.org/
[2] https://github.com/asterisk/asterisk/blob/master/third-party/pjproject/patches/config_site.h#L81

[keld_eng]

jcolp, thank you very much for your prompt and helpful reply. Your answer has reassured me that Asterisk is the best program of its kind, and that its developers are truly dedicated to the principles of free and open source software. I don’t regret that I’ve chosen Asterisk instead of Freeswitch. I’m thinking to direct some of the money that I’ll make with my application (which uses Asterisk) towards Asterisk’s development team in the future. Thank you again for your answer and for the development work.