Performance evaluation of WebRTC-based online consultation platform

Abstract

Information technologies give patients the opportunity to communicate with medical professionals remotely.Telemedicine uses these technologies to provide advanced healthcare and medical services. We present a medical onlineconsultation application based on Web Real-Time Communications (WebRTC) technology enabling chat, audio, andvideo calls. Communication architecture and protocols of the application are explained in detail. Additionally, theuser interface of the application is shown via performed calls. The application is tested and evaluated on differentnetwork connections (3G, 4G, local, and DSL) and different browsers and mobile operating systems (Android, Chrome,Firefox, Internet Explorer, iOS, Opera, Safari). During calls, communication quality parameters such as round-triptime (RTT) and packet loss, obtained via the WebRTC application programming interface, are analyzed. 3G, 4G, andlocal connections show low packet losses (1%) in Android, Chrome, iOS, Opera, andSafari for DSL connection, but RTT values are low (