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Relay as isolated scope

In most MoQ deployments, a relay is a dedicated server or a dedicated process on a shared server. Scaling means running more instances, assigning clients, and adding load balancers as demand changes.

Cloudflare's MoQ network inverts this: provisioning a relay creates an isolated scope across the existing global network, not a new compute unit. The scope separates one application's namespaces, tracks, and objects from those belonging to other relays. It also defines who can enter and whether they can publish or subscribe.

This is analogous to adding a virtual host rather than starting a new web server — infrastructure is already running; provisioning adds configuration and credentials (Source: sources/2026-07-31-cloudflare-an-api-for-moq-provision-your-own-isolated-relays).

Trade-offs

  • Advantage: Instantaneous availability without region selection, capacity estimation, or load balancer configuration.
  • Advantage: Leverages the existing 330+ city anycast footprint without per-relay scaling decisions.
  • Constraint: Isolation is logical (namespace + credential boundary) rather than physical (process/VM boundary) — blast radius properties differ from dedicated-instance models.

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