Domain hosting on the Pexip Service: justifying the monthly recurring cost

This article explains why Pexip charges a monthly recurring fee to host a custom video domain, even though the customer is the one who registers/purchases the domain and sets up the DNS SRV records that point to Pexip.

To support custom video domains so that parties outside the Pexip Service can discover where to route calls, DNS SRV records are set to point to call control devices like ygg1.vp.vc, ygg2.vp.vc, loke1.vp.vc, and loke2.vp.vc. The yggX.vp.vc devices handle SIP call flows, and the lokeX.vp.vc devices handle H.323 call flows.

When a call attempt makes it to the call control nodes, the service network’s orchestration technologies then figure out which devices in the cloud to next route the call to for proper call processing. The next device could be as simple as a destination proxy server, an MCU node, or an interworking gateway if necessary.

The service network is globally distributed, so the complexity of the orchestration can be high. Some of the cost of R&D and maintenance of this architecture is built into the cost of subscriptions.

On a more basic level, yggX.vp.vc and lokeX.vp.vc are servers that reside in the cloud and need to support the entire global service network. Pexip subscribes to cloud computing services from vendors such as Amazon Web Services to host these services in their clouds, to provide high reliability/redundancy/availability.

Pexip also pays for the high-bandwidth connectivity which interconnects the various elements of the service network together, and to ensure access to the call control nodes. The various vendors charge Pexip to host these services and for connectivity, and we pass these costs onto our subscriber population.