Skip to main content

  • Core Products

  • Add-Ons

  • Extensions Marketplace

Connect through restricted networks with Cloud Proxy

You use Agora Cloud Proxy to ensure reliable connectivity for your users when they connect from an environment with a restricted network.

Understand the tech​

To accommodate your end users’ firewall settings and business needs, Cloud Proxy offers the following operating modes:

  • Automatic (Default mode)

    By default, Video SDK first attempts a direct connection to Agora SD-RTN™. If the attempt fails, Video SDK automatically falls back and sends media securely on TLS 443. This is best practice when you are not sure if your end users are behind a firewall. While transmitting media over TLS 443 may not provide as high quality as using UDP. a connection on TLS 443 works through most firewalls. This is the default behavior of Video SDK when cloud proxy type is set to NONE (default); you don't need to write any code to enable it.

  • Force UDP

    In the Force UDP mode of Cloud Proxy, Video SDK securely sends media over UDP only. Your end users’ firewall must be configured to trust a list of allowed IP address. This is best practice when your end users are behind a firewall and require media with the highest possible quality. This mode does not support pushing streams to the CDN or relaying streams across channels.

  • Force TCP

    In the Force TCP mode of Cloud Proxy, Video SDK securely sends media over TLS 443 only. This is best practice when your end users are behind a firewall and the firewall’s security policies only allow media to flow through TLS 443. In some cases the firewall might trust any traffic over TLS 443. However, in many cases the firewall is configured to trust only a specific range of IP addresses sending traffic over TLS 443. In this case, your end user’s firewall must be configured to trust a list of allowed IP address. Media quality might be impacted if network conditions degrade.

Agora recommends upgrading to the latest SDK version, which supports all three operating modes.

The following figure shows the Cloud Proxy workflow:

cloud proxy

The steps you need to implement Cloud Proxy in your app are:

  1. Attempt to join a channel using the default Automatic mode.

    If the attempt fails, Video SDK automatically falls back and sends media securely on TLS 443.

  2. If communication on TLS 443 also fails, set Cloud Proxy type to UDP and join a channel.

  3. When the request succeeds, Cloud Proxy sends back the proxy information.

  4. Video SDK sends signaling and media data to Cloud Proxy, which forwards this data to Agora SD-RTN™.

  5. Agora SD-RTN™ sends signaling and media data to Cloud Proxy, which forwards it to Video SDK.

Prerequisites​

In order to follow this procedure you must have:

Project setup​

In order to create the environment necessary to use Cloud Proxy feature in your app, do the following:

  1. Enable and disable Cloud Proxy:

    • If your estimated Peak Concurrent Users (PCU) during a month exceeds 200, and you want to use either Force UDP or Force TCP mode, contact Agora Customer Support to activate Cloud Proxy.

    • If your estimated PCU during a month is 200 or less:

      1. In Agora Console, click the Project Management icon on the left.

      2. In Project Management, click Config for the project you want to enable Cloud Proxy for.

      3. Under Features, find Cloud Proxy (Force UDP and Force TCP modes), then click Enable.

      4. Read the Enable Cloud Proxy information carefully. Check the box showing you have read the page, then click Enable.

        Your app has access to Cloud Proxy within 24 hours.

      5. Check the Status of Cloud Proxy (Force UDP and Force TCP modes). Once you see Enabled, Your app has access to Cloud Proxy.

      After activation, you can deactivate Cloud Proxy at any time using Agora Console. Cloud Proxy is deactivated immediately.

  2. Open your app:

    In your IDE, open the SDK quickstart Video Calling project you created previously.

Implement communication using Cloud Proxy​

This section shows how to use the Video SDK to implement Cloud Proxy in your app, step-by-step.

  1. Import the required modules

    In preload.js, add the following before createAgoraRtcEngine,:

    CloudProxyType,
    Copy

  2. Enable the connection to Cloud Proxy

    To access Agora SD-RTN™ in a restricted network environment, call setCloudProxy and set the force UDP transmission mode. To implement this logic, in preload.js, add the following code after agoraEngine.initialize({appId: appID});:

    // Start cloud proxy service in the forced UDP mode.
    agoraEngine.setCloudProxy(CloudProxyType.UdpProxy);
    Copy

  3. Setup the cloud proxy callback function

    The Video SDK triggers onConnectionStateChanged callback to indicate the successful initiation of cloud proxy service. To setup this callback, in preload.js, add the following code after const EventHandles = {:

    onConnectionStateChanged: (connection, state, reason) =>
    {
    if(reason == 0)
    {
    console.log("The SDK is connecting to the Agora edge server");
    }
    },
    Copy

Test your implementation​

To ensure that you have implemented Cloud Proxy in your app:

  1. Generate a temporary token in Agora Console .

  2. In your browser, navigate to the Agora web demo and update App ID, Channel, and Token with the values for your temporary token, then click Join.

  1. In preload.js, update appID, channel and token with your values.

  2. Run the app

    Execute the following command in the terminal:

    npm start
    Copy

    You see your app opens a window named Get started with Video Calling.

  1. To connect to a channel, click Join.

You see your app starts the proxy service and magically connects to the Agora SD-RTN™ which was not possible in a restricted network environment.

Reference​

This section contains information that completes the information in this page, or points you to documentation that explains other aspects to this product.

Page Content

Video Calling