Question
- Why China Relay is necessary?
- How does China Relay work?
- Is China Relay available for all Tokbox customers?
- How do I sign up for China Relay?
Answer
China Relay is a set of OpenTok infrastructure that is deployed to Chinese data centers to improve the connectivity and video bitrates of Chinese consumers who are connecting to OpenTok Routed sessions hosted outside of China.
When Chinese consumers access internet sites that are located outside of China the traffic must pass through the “Great Firewall of China”. This government-run firewall inspects and blocks traffic. The net result is impaired connectivity and lower bandwidths.
When China Relay is active, Chinese consumers directly connect to servers inside China and from there they are connected to the OpenTok 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 customers having commercial use cases, such as Telemedicine, Tutoring, Online Classes, Financial Services, and Customer Support. If you would like to sign up for this feature, please contact your Business Development representative or email insidesales@tokbox.com to start the process. Note there is a surcharge for subscribed minutes within China.