What is China Relay? What is China Relay?

What is China Relay?

Vonage API Support
Important
The China Relay service is temporarily unavailable.
Please consult the China Relay Service Status page for more information
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Question

What is China Relay and how does it work?

Applies To

  • Video API
  • China Relay

Answer

China Relay is a component of the Vonage Video API infrastructure, deployed within Chinese data centers to improve connectivity and video quality of Chinese consumers who are connecting to Video API sessions. China Relay is required, if any participant in a Video API session is connecting from China, or if all participants connecting are within China. This relay ensures a stable connection to the Video API Platform servers, which are located outside of China. For more information about the locations of our Video Platform servers, please refer to Vonage Video API data centers  support article.

When China Relay is active, Chinese consumers directly connect to servers inside China, and from there, they are connected to the Vonage Video API media servers located outside of China. The feature is not required by clients accessing areas not subject to internet filtering, like Hong Kong.

China Relay is reserved for users with commercial use cases, such as telemedicine, tutoring, online classes, financial services, and customer support. Note that there is a surcharge for subscribed minutes within China. If you would like to sign up for this feature, contact your account manager to start the process. If you do not have an account manager, you can add this feature through your dashboard.

For Vonage Video API Opentok Environment

Go to: Vonage Video API Opentok Account > Account Settings > Account Add-Ons > China Relay

For Vonage Video API Unified Environment

Go to: Vonage API Unified dashboard > Video addons > China Relay 

In case you are not able to add this feature or not getting the option, please reach out to support by creating a ticket here. 

How to recognize if I'm using Vonage Video API Unified Environment or Vonage Video API OpenTok environment?