A method for determining and providing upstream directives in real-time communication over a wireless network is performed by an RTC/RTE application running on a mobile device and an access point application running on a Wi-Fi access point. The access point application determines the values of a set of upstream Wi-Fi signal quality parameters including at least one of an upstream RSSI parameter, an upstream SNR parameter, an upstream link speed parameter, and an upstream remaining bandwidth parameter of the mobile device. Each value is compared to a set of upstream thresholds to derive an upstream Wi-Fi connection quality measure. Each set of upstream thresholds includes at least two different values. The RTC/RTE application determines an upstream directive from the upstream Wi-Fi connection quality measure, and presents the upstream directive to a user in an audio or video form.