Benefits-Real-Time Communication(RTC)-阿里云帮助中心

This topic describes the benefits of Alibaba Cloud Real-Time Communication (RTC) over self-built services and describes the unique advantages of RTC.

RTC vs. self-built services

Alibaba Cloud RTC is continuously updated and offers the following benefits:

Comparison item	Real-Time Communication (RTC)	Self-built service
Service capability	Automatic service scale-out. Global multi-node deployment.	Long deployment epochs. Cannot dynamically increase service capacity based on traffic volume. Limited node construction. Cannot handle sudden traffic spikes.
Network coverage	Global service coverage with cross-ISP and cross-country system deployment. Global real-time network scheduling for nearby service access.	Complex self-built networks. Requires building cross-network nodes and nodes outside China. Requires collection of global scheduling data and development of supporting systems.
Cost	Low unit cost. Fine-grained service operation and efficient real-time network scheduling result in higher resource utilization. Zero O&M costs. No O&M engineers or hosting fees are required. Pay-as-you-go billing.	Single business model. Resources cannot be reused during off-peak hours, or reuse is costly. High labor costs for capacity scale-out, building new service areas, and O&M.

Convenient and fast to use:

Standard API operations for managing applications, querying data, and more.
Support for multi-terminal SDKs lets you connect devices with different screen sizes, such as PCs and mobile devices. RTC provides Simulcast media capabilities. This feature enables large-screen devices to receive high-resolution streams and small-screen devices to receive low-resolution streams, ensuring smooth hybrid communication.

Powerful and flexible security mechanisms:

API security: Securely control operations such as creating and deleting channels.
Channel-level authentication: Ensures that only legitimate and authorized terminals can access the service.
HTTPS encryption for signaling and Secure Real-time Transport Protocol (SRTP) protection for media.