ApsaraVideo Live utilizes Global Accelerator (GA) to enhance live streaming with stream ingest and streaming acceleration services. This topic describes the steps to configure GA for live streaming via the console.
Background information
ApsaraVideo Live utilizes the Global Accelerator (GA) to enhance stream ingest and playback with acceleration services. This service benefits from Alibaba Cloud's superior BGP bandwidth and extensive global transmission network, ensuring worldwide network access for live streams while minimizing the effects of network issues, including latency, jitter, and packet loss, on the quality of live streaming.
Activating GA in ApsaraVideo Live automatically generates pay-as-you-go GA instances, sets up acceleration areas and listeners, and associates these instances with acceleration circuits. Once GA is configured, live streaming in targeted regions benefits from GA's acceleration, improving overall streaming performance.
Acceleration description
Configuring cross-border acceleration alters the transmission path for live stream ingest and streaming from the traditional circuit to the new circuit, enhancing the speed and reliability of the service.
Traditional Circuit (Without Cross-border Acceleration):
-
The traditional circuit typically involves L2 nodes transmitting content to the live center via the public Internet, which can lead to congestion, packet loss, and latency, particularly when crossing international borders.
New Circuit (With Cross-border Acceleration):
Specific segments of acceleration implementation
Acceleration primarily occurs between L2 nodes and the live center, where:
Step 1: Enable the global acceleration feature
-
Log on to the ApsaraVideo Live console.
-
In the left-side navigation pane, click Domain Names. The Domain Management page appears.
-
Find the streaming domain that you want to configure and click Domain Settings in the Actions column.
-
Click .
-
Click One-click Enable. The system will automatically activate the global acceleration feature for you.
Step 2: (Optional) Enable cross-border acceleration
To create cross-border acceleration circuits for data transfer between the Chinese mainland and China (Hong Kong), China (Macao), China (Taiwan), or other regions, your Alibaba Cloud account must meet the following criteria:
The following table describes scenarios involving cross-border acceleration:
Acceleration Type |
Live Center |
Acceleration Region |
Acceleration Type |
Live Center |
Acceleration Region |
Stream ingest acceleration and streaming acceleration |
Regions in the Chinese mainland. |
China (Hong Kong), China (Macao), China (Taiwan), or other countries and regions. |
China (Hong Kong), China (Macao), China (Taiwan), or other countries and regions. |
Regions in the Chinese mainland. |
Step 3: Configure acceleration circuits
-
On the Acceleration Circuits tab, click Create Acceleration Circuit.
-
In the Create Acceleration Circuit dialog box, set the required parameters.

The table below details the parameters for global acceleration circuit configuration.
Parameter | Description |
AppName | The names of AppName and StreamName must be the same as those in the streaming URL for the acceleration circuit configuration to take effect. AppName and StreamName must not exceed 256 characters and can contain numbers, uppercase and lowercase letters, hyphens (-), and underscores (_). StreamName also supports the configuration of wildcard characters (*), which allows all streams under the specified AppName to be accelerated.
|
StreamName |
Acceleration Type | Select an acceleration type. Streaming Acceleration: Accelerates the playback circuit from the live center to the user's playback endpoint. Stream Ingest Acceleration: Accelerates the upstream stream ingest circuit from the user's stream ingest endpoint to the live center.
|
Live Center | Displays the live center in which the current streaming domain resides. |
Acceleration Circuit | Select the region where you want to accelerate content delivery. |
Acceleration Circuit Creation Method | Select a method to create an acceleration circuit. Reuse Existing Acceleration Circuit: You can reuse an existing acceleration circuit with the same acceleration region. If you reuse an existing acceleration circuit, bills are generated for the same acceleration circuit (the same GA instance). Create A New Acceleration Circuit: Create a new acceleration circuit, which will create a new GA instance that is billed separately.
|
Reuse Acceleration Circuit | When Acceleration Circuit Creation Method is set to Reuse Existing Acceleration Circuit, select the acceleration circuit you want to reuse. |
Acceleration Bandwidth (mbps) | When Acceleration Circuit Creation Method is set to Create A New Acceleration Circuit, enter the bandwidth for the acceleration circuit. You can enter an integer from 10 to 2000 Mbps. If the value is greater than 2000, the excess traffic is transmitted over the Internet. |
-
Click OK to create the acceleration circuit.
The creation and configuration of the acceleration circuit typically take 5 to 10 minutes. During this time, the Acceleration Circuit Status will be shown as Inactive in the list. You can click the Refresh button in the upper-right corner to update the page status. Once the acceleration circuit is successfully created and configured, the Acceleration Circuit Status will change to Active.
-
To discontinue an acceleration circuit, click Delete in the Acceleration Circuits list under the Operation column.
Important
-
Deleting an acceleration circuit removes it from ApsaraVideo Live, but does not delete the associated GA instance.
-
You incur fees for a pay-as-you-go GA instance, regardless of traffic, due to instance and capacity unit (CU) charges. To fully remove an instance and prevent unnecessary costs, check the GA Instances tab for instances marked as Unbound. Click the instance name to navigate to the GA console and delete the instance.
Step 4: Manage global acceleration instances
Click the instance ID in the Acceleration Circuits tab list or the GA Instances tab list to view instance details in the Global Accelerator console.
-
If the Instance Binding Status is Bound: The instance is in use and linked to the live circuit.
Do not alter the GA instance settings, such as the acceleration region and listener, in the GA console, as changes may disrupt the acceleration circuit's functionality.
-
If the Instance Binding Status is Unbound: The instance is idle and not linked to any live circuit.
Should you delete an acceleration circuit, the GA instance's status may change to Unbound. To stop incurring charges for the idle GA instance, click the instance ID to navigate to the GA console and delete the instance.
