Deductions

Deductions are the top of the analysis pyramid: the layer that weighs the Observations and scores the session to point at root causes. This is where we move from understanding what happened towards understanding why it happened.

Deductions in rtcStats is where we look across all of the Observations, weigh them, and figure out which areas are worth investigating in the results.

The Observations are built on our know-how and understanding of WebRTC behavior and troubleshooting. What we found out is that there's a lot to observe in most WebRTC sessions. That is exactly why a Deductions layer is needed: one that seamlessly integrates with the Observations and turns a long list of findings into a verdict about the session.

The best visual manifestation of that is the Areas tag cloud shown next to the Observations in the Overview tab:

There, we score and weigh each of the observations found, looking at their domains - network, behavior, inbound, outbound, audio, video, peripherals, etc. By looking at all the information together, we can estimate with a high level of accuracy what areas are causing issues, making it easier for you to zero in on the root causes.

The various tags and their meanings are:

• inbound - issues related to the incoming streams. Often appears along with the network tag, indicating potential issues with the downlink network connection
• outbound - issues related to the outgoing streams. Often appears along with the network tag, indicating potential issues with the uplink network connection
• audio - root cause focusing on audio related problems
• video - root cause focusing on video related problems
• datachannel - data channel related problems
• configuration - issues center around the configuration of the peer connection. These occur a lot for iceServers configuration
• connectivity - problems with getting peer connections to the connected state and a stable state there
• behavior - there's a user behavior problem that will be important to investigate. It can indicate a user issue or a UX problem
• network - the problems appear to be coming or affecting the network
• peripheral - the peripherals are worth looking at. These are the camera, speaker, and microphone
• cpu - the CPU is exhibiting issues that are impacting the call quality
• security - what we're seeing may affect the security of the service. Check to see that everything is in order in that domain

Scores and the AI summary

Two related outputs sit inside the Deductions layer, each turning the session's observations and metrics into an answer:

• Experience Score and other scores - high level quality scores (Audio, Video, Connectivity, Experience) that summarize the session at a glance.
• AI Enrichment - a plain-English summary of the session, so anyone on your team can understand what went wrong without reading every metric.

A few things to know about Deductions:

• Deductions are produced by the rtcStats enrichment engine, available both on rtcstats.com and as an on-premise enterprise package. They are not part of the open-source rtcstats-js or rtcstats-server collection layer
• Deductions are available only in commercial plans. The free accounts don't support deductions