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Pre-call tests

Updated

Run microphone, speaker, camera, and last-mile network checks before users join a Video Calling session.

In video calling implementations that demand high communication quality, pre-call detection helps identify and troubleshoot issues beforehand, ensuring seamless real-time interaction.

This page shows you how to use RTC SDK to run pre-call tests to identify and troubleshoot communication quality issues in your app.

Understand the tech

Pre-call testing typically covers two aspects:

  • Equipment quality test

    To test whether the local microphone, speaker, and camera are working properly, you run an echo test. The basic process of conducting an echo test is as follows:

  • Network quality analysis

    The quality of the last mile network affects the smoothness and clarity of the audio and video that the user sends and receives. Last mile refers to the last leg of communication network between the edge server of the Agora SDRTN® and the end-user devices. Network quality analysis enables you to get feedback on the available bandwidth, packet loss rate, network jitter, and round-trip delay of the upstream and downstream last-mile networks. The following figure shows the basic process of running a last-mile probe test.

information

Best practice is to run the device test first and then perform a network test.

Prerequisites

Ensure that you have implemented the SDK quickstart project and that your app has obtained permissions to use the relevant devices.

Implement pre-call testing

This section shows you how to implement pre-call testing in your project.

Equipment quality test

The SDK provides the startEchoTest method to test the network connection and whether the audio and video devices are working properly. Refer to the following steps to implement the device quality test:

  1. Before joining a channel, call startEchoTest. Specify the intervalInSeconds parameter to set the delay time for the echo test. The value range is 2-10 seconds and the default value is 10.

  2. After starting the test, speak into the microphone. The user's audio is played back after a short delay. If the playback is normal, it means that the user's devices and upstream and downstream network are working normally.

  3. To stop the test, call stopEchoTest, and then call joinChannelByToken to join a channel.

To implement running an echo test in your app, refer to the following code:

this.engine.startEchoTest(10);
this.engine.stopEchoTest();

Network quality analysis

The SDK provides the startLastmileProbeTest method to probe the last-mile network quality before joining a channel. The method returns information about the network quality score and network statistics. Take the following steps to run a last-mile network quality probe test:

  1. Before joining a channel or switching user roles, call startLastmileProbeTest to start the network test. Set the probe configuration and the expected maximum bitrate in LastmileProbeConfig.

  2. After you start the test, the SDK triggers the following callbacks:

    • onLastmileQuality: This callback is triggered two seconds after startLastmileProbeTest is called. It provides feedback on the upstream and downstream network quality through a subjective quality score.

    • onLastmileProbeResult: This callback is triggered 30 seconds after startLastmileProbeTest is called. It returns objective real-time network statistics, including packetLossRate, network jitter, and availableBandwidth.

  3. Call stopLastmileProbeTest to stop last-mile network testing.

To implement network quality testing in your app, refer to the following code:

this.engine.registerEventHandler({
  onLastmileQuality(quality: QualityType) {},
  onLastmileProbeResult(result: LastmileProbeResult) {},
});
this.engine.startLastmileProbeTest({
  probeUplink: true,
  probeDownlink: true,
  expectedUplinkBitrate: 100000,
  expectedDownlinkBitrate: 100000,
});
this.engine.stopLastmileProbeTest();

Reference

This section contains content that completes the information on this page, or points you to documentation that explains other aspects to this product.

Troubleshooting device and network issues

If you encounter problems while running pre-call tests, first ensure that you have implemented the API calls properly. To troubleshoot device and network issues, refer to the following table:

ProblemSolution
Can't hear sound when testing audio devices.- Check that the recording device and the playback device are working properly, and are not occupied by other programs.
Cannot see the screen when testing video devices.- Check that the video device is working properly and not occupied by other programs.
Poor uplink network quality detected (packet loss > 5%; network jitter > 100ms)- Check that the local network is working properly.
Poor downlink network quality detected (packet loss > 5%; network jitter > 100ms)
  • Check that the local network is working properly.
  • Ensure that the total bandwidth of the local subscription does not exceed the available downstream bandwidth by:
    • Reducing the number of subscribed audio and video streams on the receiving end or reducing the bitrate of published audio and video streams on the sending end.
    • Enabling dual-stream mode on the sending side and requesting to receive small streams on the receiving side to reduce bandwidth consumption.
    • Enabling the video stream fallback function or the multiple streams by priority fallback function at the receiving end.

This feature guide is not available yet for JavaScript.

Sample projects

Agora provides an open-source Web JoinChannelAudio sample project for your reference. Download and explore this project for a more detailed example.

During the process of adjusting call volume, refer to the AudioMixing project to adjust the playback volume of a mix or sound file.

API reference

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