Global Accelerator

Background

ApsaraVideo Live uses Global Accelerator (GA) for stream ingest and streaming acceleration. GA connects live streaming paths to the nearest network access points using Alibaba Cloud's high-quality BGP bandwidth and global transmission network. This reduces network latency, jitter, and packet loss, which improves the quality of your live streaming services.

When you use the global acceleration feature in ApsaraVideo Live, the service creates a pay-as-you-go GA instance, automatically configures the acceleration region and listener, and binds the instance to your live streaming path. After this configuration, the GA network accelerates live streaming services in the corresponding region, improving their quality.

Prerequisites

You have activated the Global Accelerator (GA) feature. For instructions, see Step 1: Activate Global Accelerator.
You have enabled cross-border acceleration. For instructions, see Step 2: (Optional) Enable cross-border acceleration.

Use cases

Improve live streaming quality

If your live streaming business has high-quality requirements, you can use the GA feature in ApsaraVideo Live to reduce network issues such as latency, jitter, and packet loss to improve service quality.
Cross-border live streaming acceleration

If your live streaming path involves cross-border transmission, you can use the GA feature to accelerate your live streams. GA creates a cross-border acceleration channel that automatically connects to the nearest network access point, reducing transmission latency and improving service quality.

Limitations

Sub-streaming domain limitations

Global Accelerator can be configured only for a main streaming domain, not for a sub-streaming domain.

RAM user limitations

By default, a RAM user cannot create, access, or manage Global Accelerator resources in your Alibaba Cloud account. To grant these permissions, attach the required policies to the RAM user:

Policy type	Policy	Authorization
System policy	AliyunGlobalAccelerationFullAccess (Grants full permissions to manage Global Accelerator) AliyunCDTFullAccess (Grants full permissions to manage Cloud Data Transfer (CDT))	For instructions on how to grant permissions to a RAM user, see Create and authorize a RAM user.
Custom policy	CreateServiceLinkedRole (Grants the permission to create a service-linked role)	How to configure the CreateServiceLinkedRole permission for a RAM user.

CreateServiceLinkedRole permission configuration

A RAM user or an STS user must have the CreateServiceLinkedRole permission.

If an API call returns the error message "You do not have the permission for ram:CreateServiceLinkedRole", the account owner or a permissions administrator must attach a custom policy to the RAM user.

The custom policy must contain the following information: Service Name: gaaccess.live.aliyuncs.com, Action: ram:CreateServiceLinkedRole.

Log on to the RAM console as a RAM administrator.
In the left-side navigation pane, choose Permissions > Policies.
On the Policies page, click Create Policy.
On the Create Policy page, click the JSON tab.

Copy the following content to the policy editor and click Next Step.

{
  "Version": "1",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": "ram:CreateServiceLinkedRole",
      "Resource": "*",
      "Condition": {
        "StringEquals":{
          "ram:ServiceName":[
            "gaaccess.live.aliyuncs.com"
          ]      
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

In the pop-up Create Policy page, name the custom policy (for example, createSLRForLiveGA) and click OK. In the pop-up dialog box, enter the Name and Note for the policy, and then click OK.
In the left-side navigation pane, choose Identities > Users.
In the Add Permissions panel, set Authorization Scope to Alibaba Cloud Account. Click the Custom Policy tab, search for and select the createSLRForLiveGA policy, and then click OK.

Billing

ApsaraVideo Live creates a standard Global Accelerator instance. You are billed for the standard instance fee and the traffic fee generated by acceleration. These charges appear on your Global Accelerator bill.

Billing type	Billable item	Description
Pay-as-you-go Global Accelerator instances	ApsaraVideo Live creates a standard Global Accelerator instance. The billable items for a standard instance include the instance fee and the CU fee.	Billing of pay-as-you-go Global Accelerator instances
Traffic billing	The traffic fee for using the Global Accelerator network is billed by Cloud Data Transfer (CDT).	Traffic billing

Acceleration areas and regions

Note

The console displays the most current list of supported regions. For more information, see Acceleration areas.
The following acceleration regions are not available by default: China (Heyuan), Brazil (Sao Paulo), Thailand (Bangkok), Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh), and UAE (Dubai). To use these regions, you must apply for a quota for the accelerated regional whitelist in Quota Center. For more information, see Increase quotas.

The following table lists the acceleration areas and regions supported by pay-as-you-go Global Accelerator instances.

Acceleration area	Regions
North China	China (Qingdao), China (Beijing), China (Ulanqab)
South China	China (Shenzhen), China (Heyuan), China (Guangzhou)
East China	China (Hangzhou), China (Shanghai)
Southwest China	China (Chengdu)
North America	US (Silicon Valley), US (Virginia), Canada (Toronto), Canada (Vancouver), Mexico
South America	Brazil (Sao Paulo)
Asia Pacific	China (Hong Kong), South Korea (Seoul), Singapore, Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), Japan (Tokyo), Indonesia (Jakarta), Philippines (Manila), Thailand (Bangkok), Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh)
Europe	Germany (Frankfurt), UK (London)
Middle East	UAE (Dubai)

Methods

You can configure Global Accelerator for ApsaraVideo Live using one of the following methods:

Console

Use the ApsaraVideo Live console to configure the Global Accelerator feature. For instructions, see Configure Global Accelerator.
API

Call API operations to configure the Global Accelerator feature. For more information, see the Global Accelerator API reference.