Client Observability: Windows

The Vonage Video SDK exposes detailed stream-quality metrics through a high-level statistics API—recommended for most use cases—which provides audio, video, network, and sender-side statistics in a unified, session-aware form that remains stable across peer-connection transitions. For advanced debugging, the SDK also offers access to the raw WebRTC stats report, which reflects unprocessed peer-connection data.

The SDK also exposes network condition metrics that provide a high-level assessment of connection health for both publishers and subscribers. These metrics include a network condition score, the reason driving that score, and—for subscribers—a degradation source indicating which side of the connection is responsible for any observed issues. See Network condition and degradation source for details.

Audio, Video and Media Link Statistics API

The Vonage Video Windows SDK sends periodic audio, video, and media link network statistics for both publishers and subscribers. These include packet counts, bitrates, frame rate data, pause/freeze metrics, codec information, and optional sender-side network estimation.

Statistics are delivered through the following events:

• Publisher.AudioStatsUpdated — publisher-side audio stats
• Publisher.VideoStatsUpdated — publisher-side video stats
• Publisher.MediaLinkStatsUpdated — publisher-side media link stats (transport metrics)
• Publisher.VideoQualityChanged — publisher video quality change notification
• Publisher.NetworkConditionChanged — publisher network condition change notification
• Subscriber.AudioStatsUpdated — subscriber-side audio stats
• Subscriber.VideoStatsUpdated — subscriber-side video stats
• Subscriber.MediaLinkStatsUpdated — subscriber-side media link stats (transport metrics)
• Subscriber.VideoQualityChanged — subscriber video quality change notification
• Subscriber.NetworkConditionChanged — subscriber network condition change notification

To receive them, set the appropriate event handler on the publisher or subscriber.

Enabling Statistics for Publishers

Set the corresponding event handlers for Publisher.AudioStatsUpdated and Publisher.VideoStatsUpdated:

publisher.AudioStatsUpdated += (sender, args) =>
{
    foreach (var stat in args.Stats)
    {
        Console.WriteLine($"Audio bytes sent: {stat.BytesSent}");
    }
};

publisher.VideoStatsUpdated += (sender, args) =>
{
    foreach (var stat in args.Stats)
    {
        Console.WriteLine($"Video packets sent: {stat.PacketsSent}");
    }
};

publisher.MediaLinkStatsUpdated += (sender, args) =>
{
    foreach (var stat in args.MediaLinkStats)
    {
        Console.WriteLine($"Publisher uplink bandwidth: {stat.Transport.ConnectionEstimatedBandwidth} bps");
        Console.WriteLine($"Network condition: {stat.Transport.Condition}");
        Console.WriteLine($"Condition reason: {stat.Transport.NetworkConditionReason}");
    }
};

These events are sent periodically to report audio and video statistics for the publisher. The event handlers for these are passed in an array of AudioNetworkStats and VideoNetworkStats Each method is passed in two objects: the publisher and an array of stats objects. For a publisher in a routed session (one that uses the OpenTok Media Router), the array includes one object, defining the statistics for the single audio or video media stream that is sent to the Vonage Video Media Router. In a relayed session, the array includes an object for each subscriber to the published stream.

Receiving Video Quality Events on the Publishers

If you are also interested in video quality events implement this handler:

publisher.VideoQualityChanged += (sender, args) =>
{
    Console.WriteLine($"Publisher video quality changed: {args.Reason}");
};

Receiving Network Condition Events on the Publishers

To receive network condition change events for the publisher, subscribe to the Publisher.NetworkConditionChanged event:

publisher.NetworkConditionChanged += (sender, args) =>
{
    Console.WriteLine($"Publisher network condition: {args.VideoStats.Transport.Condition}");
    Console.WriteLine($"Reason: {args.VideoStats.Transport.NetworkConditionReason}");
};

This event is triggered when a significant change in network condition is detected for the publisher. It provides both video and audio statistics, since they share the same underlying transport.

Enabling Statistics for Subscribers

Set the corresponding event handlers for Subscriber.AudioStatsUpdated and Subscriber.VideoStatsUpdated:

subscriber.VideoStatsUpdated += (sender, stats) =>
{
    Console.WriteLine($"Video bytes received: {stats.BytesReceived}");
};

subscriber.AudioStatsUpdated += (sender, stats) =>
{
    Console.WriteLine($"Audio packets received: {stats.PacketsReceived}");
};

subscriber.MediaLinkStatsUpdated += (sender, args) =>
{
    Console.WriteLine($"Local downlink bandwidth: {args.MediaLinkStats.Transport.ConnectionEstimatedBandwidth} bps");
    if (args.MediaLinkStats.RemotePublisherTransport != null)
    {
        Console.WriteLine($"Remote publisher uplink bandwidth: {args.MediaLinkStats.RemotePublisherTransport.ConnectionEstimatedBandwidth} bps");
    }
    Console.WriteLine($"Degradation source: {args.MediaLinkStats.NetworkDegradationSource}");
};

Receiving Video Quality events on the Subscribers

If you are also interested in video quality events implement this handler:

subscriber.VideoQualityChanged += (sender, args) =>
{
    Console.WriteLine($"Subscriber video quality event: {args.Reason}");
};

Receiving Network Condition events on the Subscribers

To receive network condition change events for the subscriber, subscribe to the Subscriber.NetworkConditionChanged event:

subscriber.NetworkConditionChanged += (sender, args) =>
{
    Console.WriteLine($"Local network condition: {args.VideoStats.Transport.Condition}");
    Console.WriteLine($"Remote publisher network condition: {args.VideoStats.RemotePublisherTransport.Condition}");
    Console.WriteLine($"Degradation source: {args.VideoStats.NetworkDegradationSource}");
};

This event is triggered when a significant change in network condition is detected for the subscriber or the remote publisher. It provides both video and audio statistics along with local and remote transport metrics.

Statistics Data Structures

This section outlines the structs and fields provided by the Windows Video SDK audio and video statistics API. While all Video SDK platforms expose the same set of statistics, there may be minor differences in how each platform structures or names individual fields. These variations reflect platform-specific SDK design conventions rather than differences in the underlying metrics.

For a platform-independent explanation of the available statistics and what they represent, refer to client observability overview.

TransportStats

Represents transport-level metrics.

• ConnectionEstimatedBandwidth — Estimated available connection bandwidth (bps)
• Condition — Current network condition score (NetworkCondition.Unknown, NetworkCondition.Critical, NetworkCondition.Warning, NetworkCondition.Fair, NetworkCondition.Good, or NetworkCondition.Excellent)
• NetworkConditionReason — Primary reason impacting the network condition (NetworkReason.None, NetworkReason.Unknown, NetworkReason.Bandwidth, or NetworkReason.PacketLoss)

Publisher.AudioNetworkStats

Provides statistics about a publisher’s audio track.

• ConnectionId — Subscriber connection ID (relayed only)
• SubscriberId — Subscriber ID (relayed only)
• PacketsLost — Total audio packets lost
• PacketsSent — Total audio packets sent
• BytesSent — Total audio bytes sent
• Timestamp — Timestamp when stats were gathered (ms)
• StartTime — Timestamp when cumulative totals began (ms)

Publisher.VideoNetworkStats

Provides statistics about a publisher’s video track.

• ConnectionId — Subscriber connection ID (relayed only)
• SubscriberId — Subscriber ID (relayed only)
• PacketsLost — Video packets lost
• PacketsSent — Video packets sent
• BytesSent — Video bytes sent
• Timestamp — Timestamp when stats were gathered
• StartTime — Timestamp when cumulative totals began
• VideoLayers — List of simulcast/SVC layers (VideoLayerStats)

Publisher.VideoLayerStats

Represents a single simulcast or SVC video layer.

• Width — Encoded frame width
• Height — Encoded frame height
• EncodedFrameRate — Encoded frames per second
• Bitrate — Layer bitrate (bps)
• TotalBitrate — Bitrate including RTP overhead (bps)
• ScalabilityMode — SVC/scalability description (e.g., "L3T3")
• QualityLimitationReason — Reason for quality reduction
• Codec — Codec used for this layer

Subscriber.AudioNetworkStatsEventArgs

Provides statistics about a subscriber’s audio track.

• PacketsLost — Estimated audio packets lost
• PacketsReceived — Audio packets received
• BytesReceived — Audio bytes received
• Timestamp — Timestamp when stats were gathered
• SenderStats — Sender-side network estimation (optional)

Subscriber.VideoNetworkStatsEventArgs

Provides statistics about a subscriber’s video track.

• PacketsLost — Video packets lost
• PacketsReceived — Video packets received
• BytesReceived — Video bytes received
• Timestamp — Timestamp when stats were gathered
• SenderStats — Sender-side network estimation (optional)
• Width — Decoded frame width
• Height — Decoded frame height
• DecodedFrameRate — Decoded frames per second
• Bitrate — Video bitrate (bps)
• TotalBitrate — Total bitrate including RTP overhead
• PauseCount — Number of video pauses (>5s without a frame)
• TotalPausesDuration — Total pause duration (ms)
• FreezeCount — Number of WebRTC-defined freezes
• TotalFreezesDuration — Total freeze duration (ms)
• Codec — Decoder codec

Publisher.PublisherMediaLinkStats

Provides transport-level statistics for a publisher's connection.

• Transport — Transport statistics for this publisher (see TransportStats)

Subscriber.SubscriberMediaLinkStats

Provides transport-level statistics for a subscriber's connections, including visibility into the remote publisher's network performance. This enables applications to diagnose whether connection issues originate from the subscriber's downlink or the publisher's uplink.

• Transport — Transport statistics for this subscriber's downlink connection (see TransportStats)
• RemotePublisherTransport — Transport statistics for the remote publisher's uplink connection (see TransportStats). May be limited if sender-side statistics are not enabled.
• NetworkDegradationSource — Indicates the source of network degradation, if any (NetworkDegradationSource.None, NetworkDegradationSource.Local, NetworkDegradationSource.Remote, or NetworkDegradationSource.BothOrUnclear)

Sender-Side Statistics

See the sender-side statistics overview.

Enabling Sender-Side Statistics

Sender-side statistics are received on the subscribers. To receive sender-side statistics, enable them for the stream’s publisher by setting the HasSenderStatsTrack property to true when building the publisher:

var publisherBuilder = new Publisher.Builder()
{
    HasSenderStatsTrack = true
};

Publisher publisher = publisherBuilder.Build();

If HasSenderStatsTrack is not enabled, no sender statistics channel will be published for this publisher. The default value is false.

Receiving Sender-Side Statistics

If the publisher has enabled sender-side statistics, subscribers receive them automatically via the VideoStatsUpdated and AudioStatsUpdated events described above. The SenderStats property on both VideoNetworkStatsEventArgs and AudioNetworkStatsEventArgs provides two metrics:

• ConnectionMaxAllocatedBitrate — The maximum bitrate that can be estimated for the connection
• ConnectionEstimatedBandwidth — The current estimated bandwidth for the connection

These metrics are calculated per audio-video bundle, so the same values appear in both video and audio statistics.

subscriber.VideoStatsUpdated += (sender, stats) =>
{
    if (stats.SenderStats != null)
    {
        Console.WriteLine($"Connection max allocated bitrate: {stats.SenderStats.ConnectionMaxAllocatedBitrate}");
        Console.WriteLine($"Connection current estimated bandwidth: {stats.SenderStats.ConnectionEstimatedBandwidth}");
    }
};

Network Condition and Degradation Source

The SDK provides real-time network condition metrics for both publishers and subscribers, including a condition score, the reason driving that score, and a degradation source for subscribers. For a full explanation of the network condition model, scores, reasons, and how to enable it, see the client observability overview.

Network condition data is available through two channels:

• Periodic statistics: The Transport property on publisher and subscriber stats objects includes Condition and NetworkConditionReason. Subscriber stats also expose RemotePublisherTransport and NetworkDegradationSource. See Statistics structures for details.
• Network condition changed events: Dedicated events on both publisher and subscriber are triggered when a significant change in network condition is detected.

The following example shows how to use the subscriber network condition data to identify the source of degradation:

subscriber.NetworkConditionChanged += (sender, args) =>
{
    var localCondition = args.VideoStats.Transport.Condition;
    var remoteCondition = args.VideoStats.RemotePublisherTransport.Condition;
    var source = args.VideoStats.NetworkDegradationSource;

    if (source == NetworkDegradationSource.Local)
    {
        Console.WriteLine($"Local network is degraded (condition: {localCondition})");
    }
    else if (source == NetworkDegradationSource.Remote)
    {
        Console.WriteLine($"Remote publisher network is degraded (condition: {remoteCondition})");
    }
    else if (source == NetworkDegradationSource.BothOrUnclear)
    {
        Console.WriteLine($"Degradation source unclear — local: {localCondition}, remote: {remoteCondition}");
    }
};

RTC Stats Report

To get a publisher low-level peer connection statistics, use the Publisher.GetRtcStatsReport() method. This provides RTC stats reports for the media stream. This is an asynchronous operation. When the stats are available, the RtcStatsReport event is sent. The RtcStatsReportArgs object includes an array of PublisherRtcStats objects, which includes a JsonArrayOfReports property. This is a JSON array of RTC stats reports, which are similar to the format the RtcStatsReport object implemented in web browsers (see these Mozilla docs).

To get a subscriber low-level peer connection statistics, use the Subscriber.GetRtcStatsReport() method. This provides an RTC stats report for the media stream.

This is an asynchronous operation. When the stats are available, the RtcStatsReport event is sent. The RtcStatsReportArgs object includes a JsonArrayOfReports property. This is a JSON array of RTC stats reports, which are similar to the format the RtcStatsReport object implemented in web browsers (see these Mozilla docs).

Also see this W3C documentation.

Requesting an RTC stats report for a publisher:

publisher.RtcStatsReport += (sender, args) =>
{
    foreach (var stat in args.stats)
    {
        Console.WriteLine(stat.JsonArrayOfReports); // Raw RTC JSON
    }
};

publisher.GetRtcStatsReport();