What is a Network Edge?
A network edge is a location where a computer network interfaces with the Internet. A network connected to the Internet may have one or more network edges located in data centers throughout the world.
Many Internet providers have one or more core networks where services and content originate. These networks are often connected to a larger and more geographically distributed collection of network edges which can be used to efficiently deliver those services and content to end-users.
Since network edges can be nearer to end-users than the services hosted within the core network, providers often serve as much content as possible from devices in the network edge in order for the content to reach the end-user with minimal delay. Content delivery networks (CDNs), which typically serve cached copies of static assets to end-users, are an example of this pattern.
Twilio operates a collection of network edges around the world known as Twilio Edge Locations. These allow customers to select the site where their application's network traffic will enter and exit Twilio's platform. Selecting an Edge Location closest to an application's servers (for API traffic) or to its end-users (for voice and video traffic) can result in improved reliability and reduced latency.
Twilio's Edge Locations support the following types of network traffic:
- HTTP requests to Twilio APIs
- HTTP webhook requests to your application from Twilio
- Signaling and Media traffic for real-time voice or video applications
- SIP traffic
To learn more about Edge Locations and how to leverage them to optimize connectivity in your own use cases, check out the following resources:
- For server-side applications: Twilio helper library documentation
- For webhook delivery to your applications: Webhook Connection Overrides documentation
- For browser-based voice applications: Twilio Programmable Voice SDK - JavaScript
- For mobile voice applications: Twilio Programmable Voice SDK - iOS and Android
- For video applications: Twilio Programmable Video SDK
- For SIP connectivity: Programmable Voice SIP documentation
In addition to the public Edge Locations that are available to all Twilio customers, Twilio also offers a selection of private Edge Locations for use by our Interconnect customers. Private Edge Locations provide enhanced security and reliability by enabling your applications to connect directly from your private infrastructure to Twilio's servers, without traversing the public Internet.
For a complete list of available public and private Edge Locations, see the Global Infrastructure documentation.