Hybrid SIP-WebRTC Architecture for Inclusive Agricultural Expertise in Rural Africa

Abstract

The digital divide in rural African areas limits access to modern real-time communication services, thereby hindering agricultural knowledge transfer. This paper presents TVAgri, a hybrid architecture integrating SIP telephony and WebRTC technologies to enable universal participation in agricultural expertise sessions, regardless of connectivity level. The system combines LiveKit (a WebRTC platform), Asterisk (a SIP server), and Python-based orchestration services to establish a transparent bidirectional audio bridge between telephone participants and connected users. The architecture implements automatic detection of incoming calls, bot-based call answering, intelligent queue management, and expert-controlled access to the session. Experimental results demonstrate the successful integration of SIP participants into WebRTC sessions with simultaneous broadcasting on Web and HbbTV interfaces. The system preserves the benefits of digital sovereignty and scalability offered by opensource solutions while eliminating the Internet access barrier. This approach opens new perspectives for inclusive deployments in the agricultural, educational, and healthcare sectors in subSaharan Africa.