When Should You Replace Open-Source Real-Time Infrastructure? Lessons from Building LO

说明与用途

LO 用自己的 ConnectX 协议替换了开源实时工具，以获得更好的控制和性能，同时保留成熟的开源组件。

问题

Choosing an existing technology can accelerate early development, but over time its limitations may become more expensive than building a custom solution.

结果

By replacing Centrifugo and mediasoup with ConnectX, LO gained control over critical real‑time features, achieving measurable performance gains and aligning infrastructure with product evolution while retaining mature open‑source components for other needs.

工作流

• 1. Identify recurring limitations in the existing real‑time stack.
• 2. Evaluate if workarounds are growing into a complex architecture.
• 3. Assess whether greater control would improve user experience (performance, reliability).
• 4. Determine long‑term maintenance capacity for a proprietary system.
• 5. Decide to replace or adapt the existing technology.
• 6. Design and implement a custom protocol (ConnectX).
• 7. Integrate ConnectX into the platform and benchmark improvements.

证据

We began transitioning toward our own real‑time infrastructure to gain greater control over a critical part of the platform.

来源

In one of our updates, ConnectX optimizations improved connection establishment speed by approximately 20%.

来源

Replacing a technology doesn't necessarily mean the original choice was wrong.

来源