WebRTC Observability

WebRTC Observability is a crucial aspect of ensuring high-quality internet voice calls, particularly when served by cloud contact centers. Without this essential complement to CCaaS platforms, contact centers and the IT teams supporting them lack the necessary visibility into call quality and ultimately customer experience.

In this article, we’ll provide an overview of WebRTC, discuss WebRTC Observability features and benefits, and highlight the technical data available from WebRTC Observability tools.

What is WebRTC Observability?

WebRTC Observability allows continuous monitoring, analysis, and troubleshooting of WebRTC-based communication sessions. Contact centers gain insights into the performance, quality, and reliability of real-time communication applications, ultimately improving agent and customer experience.

WebRTC Overview

WebRTC, which stands for Web Real-Time Communication, is an open-source project that enables real-time communication capabilities directly within web browsers. It empowers developers to build applications with features like video conferencing, voice calling, and data sharing, all without the need for plugins or additional software installations.

Challenges in Ensuring High-Quality Voice Calls

Ensuring high-quality voice calls in WebRTC-based communication comes with its own set of challenges, particularly when compared to traditional telephony (PSTN) systems. Voice streaming over the internet introduces unique factors that can impact voice quality. Here are some of the challenges involved:

• Network Variability: Unlike traditional telephony systems that operate within a controlled network environment, in some cases WebRTC relies on the public internet for data transmission. This introduces network variability, including fluctuations in bandwidth, latency, and packet loss, which can affect the quality of voice calls.
• Codec Compatibility: WebRTC supports various audio codecs that enable efficient data compression and transmission. However, codec compatibility among different devices and browsers can be a challenge, leading to differences in audio quality and potentially impacting the overall voice call experience.
• End-to-End Quality Control: In WebRTC-based communication, the voice call quality is influenced by multiple components, including the agent's workstation, network conditions, and the WebRTC infrastructure itself. Ensuring end-to-end quality control requires monitoring and optimizing each component to maintain a consistent, high-quality voice experience.
• Adaptive Bitrate: WebRTC implementations often employ adaptive bitrate techniques to adjust the quality of the audio stream based on network conditions. However, dynamically changing the bitrate can introduce challenges in maintaining a consistent voice quality, especially when network conditions fluctuate rapidly.

Addressing these challenges requires a comprehensive approach that utilizes comprehensive CX Observability tooling. By understanding and mitigating these challenges, contact centers can deliver high-quality voice calls that enhance the overall agent and customer experience.

Essential Features for WebRTC Observability

Comprehensive observability features are essential for effectively analyzing and optimizing WebRTC-based communication. These features include:

• Real-time Monitoring: Continuous monitoring of WebRTC sessions to detect issues and anomalies in real-time.
• Call Quality Metrics: Measurement and analysis of key performance indicators such as jitter, latency, packet loss, and audio/video quality.
• End-to-End Visibility: Complete visibility into the entire communication path, from the CCaaS platform to the agent's audio device.
• Alerts and Notifications: Proactive alerts and notifications for potential problems or degradation in performance.
• Historical Analytics: Historical data analysis to identify patterns, trends, and areas for improvement.

Technical Data Available from WebRTC Observability Tools

Operata Platform's WebRTC Observability tools offer rich technical data that enables deep insights into communication sessions. Some of the technical data points available include:

• Media Quality Metrics: Bitrate, resolution, frame rate, and codec information for audio and video streams.
• Voice Quality Metrics: MOS Score and POLQA, two common metrics powered by algorithms that try to assess voice quality as perceived by humans.
• Network Stats: Round-trip time (RTT), available bandwidth, and packet loss statistics.
• ICE Connectivity: Gathering and connectivity status for Interactive Connectivity Establishment (ICE) candidates.
• Transport Protocol Details: Transport protocol used, encryption details, and protocol-specific metrics.

If you’re interested in a deep dive into the available technical data and how it can benefit your contact center, read this Phase Pacific case study to learn how their collaboration resulted in Operata launching the world’s first cloud-based toolset for voice quality testing and performance assessment.

Benefits of WebRTC Observability

By implementing WebRTC Observability, cloud contact centers gain several benefits:

Enhanced Agent and Customer Experience

Monitoring and optimizing WebRTC sessions enables contact centers to deliver an exceptional calling experience to their customers.

Faster Troubleshooting

Real-time monitoring and comprehensive visibility enable quick identification and resolution of issues, minimizing downtime.

Improved Voice Quality and Reliability

WebRTC Observability helps contact centers maintain high call quality, minimize audio/video issues, and ensure reliable communication.

Data-Driven Decision Making

Leveraging insights from WebRTC Observability tools, contact centers and their supporting IT teams can make informed decisions to optimize their communications infrastructure.

Correlated Technical, Operations, and Experience Data

When using Operata Platform for WebRTC Observability, contact centers can identify technical factors that are contributing to poor operational performance or agent and customer experience.

This is particularly valuable to the entire contact center organization. For example, a contact center may gain insight into how packet loss for a cohort of agents is caused by an outdated network router, and that the resulting low voice quality is negatively impacting agent and customer sentiment while also increasing call transfer rates.

Deliver Exceptional CX With High-Quality Voice Calls

WebRTC Observability is crucial in ensuring high-quality voice call experiences for cloud contact center agents and customers. Implementing Operata's CX Observability software provides contact centers with unprecedented insights into their WebRTC-based technology and its impact on operations and experience KPIs.

Take the first step towards improving voice quality and customer experience by signing up for a free trial and getting started in under 30 minutes!