Building a reliable video calling platform is one of the toughest challenges in distributed systems. When millions of users rely on your platform to connect in real-time, a single network hiccup can cascade into degraded video quality, dropped frames, or worse, a disconnected call. Understanding how to architect a system that gracefully handles network volatility while supporting multi-party calls, screen sharing, and recording requires thoughtful design across multiple layers. Architecture Overview A video calling platform like Zoom needs several interconnected components working in harmony. At the core, you have signaling servers that handle call initiation and coordination using WebSocket or gRPC connections. These servers manage the state of active calls, route participants to the appropriate media servers, and coordinate features like breakout rooms and screen sharing. The signaling layer is intentionally lightweight because its primary job is orchestration, not media transport.…