Abstract
WebRTC comprises a set of technologies and standards that provide real-time communication with web browsers, simplifying the embedding of voice and video communication in web applications and mobile devices. The perceived quality of WebRTC communication can be measured using quality of experience (QoE) indicators. QoE is defined as the degree of delight or annoyance of the user with an application or service. This paper is focused on the QoE assessment of WebRTC-based applications and its contribution is threefold. First, an analysis of how WebRTC topologies affect the quality perceived by users is provided. Second, a group of Key Performance Indicators for estimating the QoE of WebRTC users is proposed. Finally, a systematic survey of the literature on QoE assessment in the WebRTC arena is presented.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Our search was last updated in March 2018.
References
Alvestrand H, Holmer S (2012) A Google congestion control for real-time communication on the World Wide Web. Tech. rep, IETF
Ammar D, De Moor K, Xie M, Fiedler M, Heegaard P (2016) Video QoE killer and performance statistics in WebRTC-based video communication. In: Communications and Electronics (ICCE), 2016 IEEE Sixth International Conference on, IEEE, pp 429–436
Bandung Y, Subekti LB, Tanjung D, Chrysostomou C (2017) QoS analysis for WebRTC videoconference on bandwidth-limited network. In: 2017 20th International symposium on wireless personal multimedia communications (WPMC), pp 547–553
Bevan N (1999) Quality in use: meeting user needs for quality. J Syst Softw 49(1):89–96
Boubendir A, Bertin E, Simoni N (2016) On-demand, dynamic and at-the-edge VNF deployment model application to Web Real-Time Communications. In: Network and service management (CNSM), 2016 12th international conference on, IEEE, pp 318–323
Brunnström K, Beker SA, De Moor K, Dooms A, Egger S, Garcia MN, Hossfeld T, Jumisko-Pyykkö S, Keimel C, Larabi MC, et al (2013) Qualinet white paper on definitions of quality of experience
Carlucci G, De Cicco L, Holmer S, Mascolo S (2016) Analysis and design of the Google congestion control for web real-time communication (WebRTC). In: Proceedings of the 7th international conference on multimedia systems, ACM, pp 13:1–13:12
Carullo G, Tambasco M, Di Mauro M, Longo M (2016) A performance evaluation of WebRTC over LTE. In: Wireless on-demand network systems and services (WONS), 2016 12th annual conference on, IEEE, pp 1–6
Chandler DM, Hemami SS (2007) VSNR: a wavelet-based visual signal-to-noise ratio for natural images. IEEE Trans Image Process 16(9):2284–2298
Chen Y, Wu K, Zhang Q (2015) From QoS to QoE: a tutorial on video quality assessment. IEEE Commun Surv Tutor 17(2):1126–1165
Chikkerur S, Sundaram V, Reisslein M, Karam LJ (2011) Objective video quality assessment methods: a classification, review, and performance comparison. IEEE Trans Broadcast 57(2):165–182
Chodorek RR, Chodorek A, Rzym G, Wajda K (2017) A comparison of QoS parameters of WebRTC videoconference with conference bridge placed in private and public cloud. In: Enabling technologies: infrastructure for collaborative enterprises (WETICE), 2017 IEEE 26th international conference on, IEEE, pp 86–91
Chong HM, Matthews HS (2004) Comparative analysis of traditional telephone and voice-over-internet protocol (voip) systems. In: Electronics and the environment, 2004. Conference record. 2004 IEEE international symposium on, IEEE, pp 106–111
Cisco VNI (2017) Forecast and Methodology, 2016–2021. White Paper
Edan NM, Al-Sherbaz A, Turner S (2017) WebNSM: A novel scalable WebRTC signalling mechanism for many-to-many video conferencing. In: Collaboration and internet computing (CIC), 2017 IEEE 3rd international conference on, IEEE, pp 27–33
Egger S, Schatz R, Scherer S (2010) It takes two to tango—assessing the impact of delay on conversational interactivity on perceived speech quality. In: 11th Annual conference of the international speech communication association (ISCA), pp 1321–1324
García B, Gortázar F, López-Fernández L, Gallego M (2017a) WebRTC testing: challenges and practical solutions. IEEE Commun Stand Mag 1(2):36–42
García B, López-Fernández L, Gallego M, Gortázar F (2017b) Kurento: the Swiss army knife of WebRTC media servers. IEEE Commun Stand Mag 1(2):44–51
Garvin DA (1984) What does “product quality” really mean? MIT Sloan Manag Rev 26(1):25–43
Grigorik I (2013) High performance browser networking: what every web developer should know about networking and web performance. O’Reilly Media, Inc
Handley M, Perkins C, Jacobson V (2006) RFC 4566. Session description protocol. Tech. rep., IETF, SDP
Hekstra AP, Beerends JG, Ledermann D, De Caluwe F, Kohler S, Koenen R, Rihs S, Ehrsam M, Schlauss D (2002) PVQM: a perceptual video quality measure. Signal Process: Image Commun 17(10):781–798
Herrero R (2017) Integrating HEC with circuit breakers and multipath RTP to improve RTC media quality. Telecommun Syst 64(1):211–221
Hoßfeld T, Schatz R, Varela M, Timmerer C (2012) Challenges of QoE management for cloud applications. IEEE Commun Mag 50(4):28–36
Husić JB, Baraković S, Veispahić A (2017) What factors influence the quality of experience for WebRTC video calls? In: Information and communication technology, electronics and microelectronics (MIPRO), 2017 40th international convention on, IEEE, pp 428–433
Huynh-Thu Q, Ghanbari M (2008) Scope of validity of PSNR in image/video quality assessment. Electron Lett 44(13):800–801
ISO (2005) ISO 9000: Quality management systems—fundamentals and vocabulary. International Organization for Standardization
ITU-R (2007) Recommendation BT.1788. Methodology for the subjective assessment of video quality in multimedia applications
ITU-T (2001) Recommendation G.1010. End-user multimedia QoS categories
ITU-T (2003) Recommendation G.114. Transmission systems and media digital systems and networks
ITU-T (2006) Recommendation P.10. Vocabulary for performance and quality of service
ITU-T (2008a) Recommendation E.800. Definitions of terms related to quality of service
ITU-T (2008b) Recommendation J.247. Objective perceptual multimedia video quality measurement in the presence of a full reference
ITU-T (2011) Recommendation P.863. Perceptual objective listening quality assessment
ITU-T (2014) Recommendation E.807: definitions, associated measurement methods and guidance targets of user-centric parameters for call handling in cellular mobile voice service
ITU-T (2016a) Recommendation P.10/G.100. Vocabulary for performance and quality of service (Amendment 5)
ITU-T (2016b) Recommendation. P.800.2. Mean opinion score interpretation and reporting
Ivov E, Rescorla E, Uberti J (2013) Trickle ICE: incremental provisioning of candidates for the interactive connectivity establishment (ICE) protocol. Tech. rep, IETF
Jin J, Nahrstedt K (2004) QoS specification languages for distributed multimedia applications: a survey and taxonomy. IEEE Multimed 11(3):74–87
Johansson I, Sarker Z (2017) Self-clocked rate adaptation for multimedia. Tech. rep, IETF
Khan M (2017) WebRTCPedia! the Encyclopedia! https://www.webrtc-experiment.com/webrtcpedia/, [Online; accessed 11 June 2018]
Kilinc C, Andersson K (2014) A congestion avoidance mechanism for WebRTC interactive video sessions in LTE networks. Wirel Pers Commun 77(4):2417–2443
Kitchenham B (2004) Procedures for performing systematic reviews. Keele UK Keele Univ 33(2004):1–26
Kitchenham B, Pfleeger SL (1996) Software quality: the elusive target [special issues section]. IEEE Softw 13(1):12–21
Komperda O, Melvin H, Pota P (2016) A black box analysis of WebRTC mouth-to-ear delays. Communications pp 11–16
Loreto S, Romano SP (2014) Real-time communication with WebRTC: peer-to-peer in the browser. O’Reilly Media, Inc
Matthews P, Mahy R, Rosenberg J (2010) RFC 5766. Traversal using relays around NAT (TURN): relay extensions to session traversal utilities for NAT (STUN). Tech. rep., IETF
Muñoz-Gea JP, Aparicio-Pardo R, Wehbe H, Simon G, Nuaymi L (2014) Optimization framework for uplink video transmission in HetNets. In: Proceedings of workshop on mobile video delivery, ACM
Pinson MH, Wolf S (2004) A new standardized method for objectively measuring video quality. IEEE Trans Broadcast 50(3):312–322
Rix AW, Hollier MP, Hekstra AP, Beerends JG (2002) Perceptual evaluation of speech quality (PESQ) the new ITU standard for end-to-end speech quality assessment Part I-Time-delay compensation. J Audio Eng Soc 50(10):755–764
Rosenberg J (2010) RFC 5245. Interactive connectivity establishment (ICE): a methodology for network address translator (NAT) traversal for offer/answer protocols. Tech. rep., IETF
Rosenberg J, Schulzrinne H (2002) RFC 3264. An offer/answer model with SDP. Tech. rep, IETF
Rosenberg J, Weinberger J, Huitema C, Mahy R (2003) RFC 3489. STUN, simple traversal of user datagram protocol (UDP) through network address translators (NATs). Tech. rep., IETF
Rosenberg J, Mahy R, Matthews P, Wing D (2008) RFC 5389. Session traversal utilities for NAT (STUN)Tech. rep., IETF
Sale S, Rebbeck T (2014) Operators need to engage with WebRTC and the opportunities it presents. Analysis Mason Report
Santos-González I, Rivero-García A, Molina-Gil J, Caballero-Gil P (2017) Implementation and analysis of real-time streaming protocols. Sensors 17(4):1–17
Takahashi A, Hands D, Barriac V (2008) Standardization activities in the ITU for a QoE assessment of IPTV. IEEE Commun Mag 46(2):78–84
Timmerer C, Ebrahimi T, Pereira F (2015) Toward a new assessment of quality. Computer 48(3):108–110
Tsiaras C, Rösch M, Stiller B (2015) VoIP-based calibration of the DQX Model. In: IFIP networking conference (IFIP networking), 2015, IEEE, pp 1–9
Vucic D, Skorin-Kapov L (2015) The impact of mobile device factors on QoE for multi-party video conferencing via WebRTC. In: Telecommunications (ConTEL), 2015 13th international conference on, IEEE, pp 1–8
Wang Z, Bovik AC, Sheikh HR, Simoncelli EP (2004) Image quality assessment: from error visibility to structural similarity. IEEE Trans Image Process 13(4):600–612
Westerlund M, Wenger S (2015) RFC 5117. RTP topologies. Tech. rep, IETF
Xiao F (2000) DCT-based video quality evaluation. Final Project for EE392J
Zhang L, Amin SO, Westphal C (2017) VR video conferencing over named data networks. In: Proceedings of the workshop on virtual reality and augmented reality network, ACM, pp 7–12
Zhao T, Liu Q, Chen CW (2017) QoE in video transmission: a user experience-driven strategy. IEEE Commun Surv Tutor 19(1):285–302
Zhu X, Pan R, Ramalho MA, Mena S, Ganzhorn C, Jones PE (2015) NADA: A unified congestion control scheme for real-time media. Tech. rep, IETF
Acknowledgements
This work has been supported by the European Commission under project ElasTest (H2020-ICT-10-2016, GA-731535); by the Regional Government of Madrid (CM) under project Cloud4BigData (S2013/ICE-2894) cofunded by FSE & FEDER; and the Spanish Government under project LERNIM (RTC-2016-4674-7) cofunded by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, FEDER & AEI.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
García, B., Gallego, M., Gortázar, F. et al. Understanding and estimating quality of experience in WebRTC applications. Computing 101, 1585–1607 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00607-018-0669-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00607-018-0669-7