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MediaGuard Server Clusters

Since MediaGuard is designed to provide pre-bid IVT predictions in real time, it's important to minimize latency as much as possible. One step we take to minimize latency is providing each MediaGuard user with their own unique set of MediaGuard servers, collectively known as a cluster.

Each cluster contains multiple servers (or nodes) to handle your requests. Whenever you send data to MediaGuard, you'll send that data to your own dedicated cluster; likewise, every time you receive an IVT prediction from MediaGuard, that prediction will come from your cluster. No other MediaGuard users will send requests to your dedicated cluster, and your requests will never reach other users' clusters.

Cluster deployment​

To support our users in all regions, HUMAN deploys MediaGuard clusters in various data centers across the globe. As part of the MediaGuard onboarding process, we'll set up a new server cluster as close to you possible; however, to ensure optimal response times, each of your own data centers must be within 200 miles of the data centers where your dedicated MediaGuard servers reside.

Service providers​

HUMAN uses Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and Equinix Metal data centers for our standard cluster deployments.

note

It is not possible to deploy MediaGuard on your own servers.

Cluster size​

The size of your MediaGuard cluster depends on the amount of requests you anticipate making to MediaGuard—in other words, if you need a high volume of IVT predictions, you'll need more nodes per cluster.

Each node in a MediaGuard cluster can process a certain number of queries per second (QPS). This number varies based on which MediaGuard integration option you're using:

  • If your integration is built on the MediaGuard SDK, which automatically handles connection pooling and load balancing via round-robin DNS, each node can process a maximum of 20,000 QPS.

  • If your integration is built on the MediaGuard API, each node will have a lower QPS limit compared to an integration build on the MediaGuard SDK. The actual limit depends on how well you handle load balancing and connection pooling, although even an optimized API integration generally performs below 20,000 QPS per node.

Example calculation​

We use this QPS threshold to calculate the number of nodes you'll need in your MediaGuard cluster. For example, if your integration is built on the MediaGuard SDK, and you anticipate a maximum threshold of 90,000 QPS, HUMAN would provision six nodes for your cluster:

90,000 / 20,000 = 5 [rounded up]
                + 1 [redundancy]
--------------------
                  6 [total]
NOTE

When we calculate the number of nodes required to support your projected QPS, we always add an extra node for redundancy. As such, all clusters must have at least two nodes, even if your projected QPS is less than the limit of a single node.

Limiting connections​

Even with load balancing in place, a sudden increase in connections can overwhelm a node and prevent MediaGuard from responding to lookup requests—regardless of your integration type. Because of this, we recommend opening a small number of long-lived connections and sending as many requests through that connection as possible.

Traffic spikes​

If you anticipate a QPS spike of 20% or more in the near future, please contact HUMAN as soon as possible to discuss cluster resizing. We may need to add more nodes to your cluster to prevent increased latency or other performance issues.