Reduce live-stream bandwidth consumption to a fraction of the traffic volume with eCDN for Google Meet

What’s changing

In September 2023, we introduced ultra-low latency livestreaming and since then we’ve introduced several improvements for the overall experience. Today, we’re excited to introduce the latest enhancement for ultra-low latency live streaming: Enterprise Content Delivery Network (eCDN) support for Google Meet.

When configured by admins, eCDN has the potential to reduce bandwidth consumption to a fraction of the traffic volume. This applies to all live streams, including those originating from outside of your own domain. This is achieved through peer-assisted media delivery — whereby live streamed content is automatically shared between nearby peers, reducing the need to retrieve content from Google servers and minimizing bottleneck. There is no additional software, hardware, or end user action required to use eCDN — it works automatically in the background.

With eCDN turned on, live streamed content is shared between peers (as seen on the right), reducing the need to retrieve content from Google servers (as seen on the left).

Who’s impacted

Admins and end users

Why it’s important

Live streaming is a key tool for presenting information to large audiences such as town-hall meetings, weekly broadcasts or other kinds of events with large audiences. As such, video quality of live streamed content is critical. Using eCDN can significantly reduce the strain on internet gateways while delivering a high-quality viewing experience with consistently low latency. Without eCDN, each viewer is sent their own individual feed. With eCDN turned on for a private network, the backend will send media to a significantly lower number of clients in that network. Those clients will then use the eCDN technology to take over and redistribute media to ensure that all viewers in that network receive the media they need, with high quality and preserved ultra-low latency.

Getting started

Admins: This feature will be OFF by default and can be enabled at the group level in the Admin console under Apps > Workspace > Meet > eCDN settings. The peering behavior of eCDN clients can be configured at granular levels if needed, including down to the subnet level.Visit the Help Center to learn more about turning live streaming on or off for Meet, as well as turning eCDN for Meet on for your organization. eCDN can also provide traffic savings for live streams originating from outside your domain. Visit the Help Center to learn more about trusted domains for live streaming.You can monitor eCDN analytics using the Meet Quality Tool.

End users: There is no end user action required — make sure you’re using Chrome 121 or later on a laptop or desktop computer to ensure the highest quality ultra-low latency live streaming experience.

Rollout pace

Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility) starting on July 23, 2024

Note: eCDN is available for those customers who have received the ultra-low latency live streaming experience. For some customers, that update is rolling out at a slower rate and they may not receive these updates for several months.