Tips and Tricks for Optimizing the Customer Experience with WebRTC

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Tips & Tricks for Optimizing the Customer
Experience (CX) with WebRTC
Amitha Pulijala
Oracle Communications
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cus·tom·er ex·pe·ri·ence
The sum of all experiences a consumer has with a supplier of goods or
services, over the duration of their relationship with that supplier.
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What do Customers Expect from Great Experiences?
CONSISTENT VIDEO & VOICE
CONNECTED INTERACTIONS
PERSONALIZED JOURNEY
EFFICIENT SERVICE
REWARDING RELATIONSHIP
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Today’s Customer Journeys are Complex
Multiple Devices
Multiple Networks
Multiple Channels

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Broken Journeys Drive Customers Away

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CX Tip 1: Enable Seamless Journeys
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Session Connectivity and Reliability
• Customers expect a seamless experience across
– “Web” style Browser reloads
– “Web” style “Back Button” navigation
– Native app crashes
– IP network connectivity changes (WiFi <-> 4G)
– Device Handoffs
– Server-side failures
• This can be solved using the concept of Session Rehydration
– Ability to keep the session alive when connectivity is interrupted and
recreate it as soon as the connectivity is re-established
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Session Rehydration
• In the event that the local app state is reinitialized, either
due to a user reload of the page, or a decision within the
app to reload itself it is possible to keep an existing session
alive, via a process called "rehydration“
• Inspired by the approach described in IETF rtcweb-jsep-03
draft
• Upon reconnect, resurrect the session (voice, video, Data
Channel)
– Client Information (sessionId etc) is stored in LocalStorage
– Completely reliable signaling protocol
– WebSocket connection is kept for a short time and the message
resynchronization happens when clients is reconnected
– Restart ICE procedures, send new SDP
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Dynamic Media Peering
• Fast call set up times impact the customer experience
• WebRTC call set up procedure takes a considerable amount of time
to establish a session
– Gather Candidates, Prioritize, Exchange with remote party
– Connectivity Checks
• This can be solved by
– Dynamic Media Peering
• Prioritize the candidates that are most likely to work first (“relay” or “TURN” candidates)
• Establish the connection
• Try in parallel whether the parties can communicate directly
• If they can, then the media switches to a direct channel seamlessly
– Trickle ICE
• Alternately, trickle ICE reduces the time necessary for ICE processing to complete
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Connecting…

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CX Tip 2: Identify and Solve Weak Points
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Don’t Be Afraid To Take a Step Back!
• Patchy videos and mid call-drops impair Customer Experience
• The solution for this is:
– Use webrtc-stats API to measure
• Jitter
• Packets Lost
• Bandwidth
– RTCP feedback mechanisms, CPU/Frame Rate, Battery!
– Fall back to Low Resolution Video -> Audio depending on the
bandwidth, packet loss
– Network options, handoffs WiFi -> LTE-> 3G
– Encode the same video stream twice in different resolutions and
bitrates – Simulcast!
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The World is a chatty place!
• Customers expect to stay “engaged” when they wander away from
the app without draining device resources – battery power
• This can be solved by:
– Optimizing the WebSocket connections with Push Notifications
• Hibernation of the session during periods of inactivity
• Session rehydration upon wake up/ call resume
– Mobile Push Notification Gateway
• Manages connectivity to APNS, GCM; registers and activates multiple apps
• Supports templates
• Delivers push notifications to iOS and Android
– Chrome Push Notifications – Service Worker, W3C API
• On desktop and mobile browsers
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Elephant in the Room
• Interoperability is the “Key” to success in the enterprise
applications
• 60% of the Oracle’s Enterprise Customers run their desktop
applications on Internet Explorer
• How to solve IE stop gap on desktop?
– Plug-ins for multiple versions of IE
– Microsoft Edge – getUserMedia Support
• How about Safari?
– Stop gap hedged by native WebRTC support
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Mobile…is different!
• Customers do not like if their video calls quickly drain
the battery on their device
• Hardware acceleration on mobile
– Video coding with dedicated hardware allows for better video
performance as well as significant battery savings
– Stopgap - Fallback to H.264 where VP8 is not supported by the
native chip sets
– VP9, Daala, Thor - the war never ends!
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Additional Developer Resources
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• Oracle WebRTC Developer Page : http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-
tools/webrtc/overview/index.html
• Oracle WebRTC Session Controller:
http://www.oracle.com/us/products/applications/communications/web-rtc-session-
controller/overview/index.html
• Sandbox (partner maintained): http://tadhack.optaresolutions.com/

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Thank You!
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