Zoom is now offering a hybrid meeting solution called Zoom Meetings Hybrid (ZMH), enabling customers to deploy Zoom meeting components into their network (behind their firewall) and keep either all or most of the meeting media on-premises. This allows internal users to connect to a local hybrid server while external users will still be able to join via the Zoom Cloud in most scenarios. The ZMH also improves user network security by providing media edge capability.
For a typical meeting, with multiple internal users as meeting participants, only one link to the Zoom Cloud is required for the meeting’s session. This helps reduce the internet bandwidth requirements for customers with large meetings. For calls that include external participants, the external participants will join via the Zoom-hosted environment, and for multimedia routing a bi-directional UDP connection will be established between the internal servers and Zoom’s cloud-hosted environment.
This article covers:
| Component | Role |
|
Top MMR |
The first MMR used for the meeting and is defined by the connection from the first meeting participant. |
|
Sub MMR |
Any other MMRs utilized for the meeting. These MMRs connect to the Top MMR. |
|
Hybrid VM |
A Virtual Machine that will be installed within a customer’s network/data center to enable the Hybrid service. One Hybrid VM includes two ZC Proxies & two Hybrid MMRs by default. |
|
Hybrid ZC |
Hybrid Zone Controllers are deployed in the Zoom Cloud and manage Hybrid MMRs. It responds to the client’s ping request and returns Hybrid MMRs to use through ZC Proxy. |
|
ZCP |
The Zone Controller Proxy handles ping requests sent to the Hybrid ZC running within the Zoom Cloud. |
|
HMMR |
Hybrid MMRs deployed as a part of the Hybrid VM. |
|
Zoom Client |
The Zoom Desktop, Mobile, and Web Client. |
|
CMR agent |
This agent connects to the meeting and records the meeting if Cloud Recording is started for the meeting. |
|
SFU |
Selective forwarding unit providing media routing for regular Hybrid Meetings |
|
iMMR |
Internal MMR which provides media routing for internal meetings |
The ZMH is based on a new type of MMR with two function modes, an Internal MMR (iMMR) mode, and a Selective Forwarding Unit (SFU) mode. The iMMR will be used for internal hybrid meetings where media always stays on-prem; SFU will be used in regular hybrid meetings when joining a meeting when a cloud MMR is used as the Top and media stay on-prem only if a single SFU is involved in the meeting. SFU mode handles media data only and is controlled by Cloud MMR in a meeting.
In Regular mode, the Zoom Meeting Hybrid (ZMH) processes meeting media locally for on-prem users and allow external users to join meetings through the Zoom cloud. In this mode, the ZMH also allows for the consumption of cloud-delivered services such as whiteboard, live streaming, transcription/translation, and recording.
For regular hybrid meetings, ZMH utilizes its Selective Forwarding Unit (SFU) functionality, which relays media locally to internal attendees and enables cloud cascading for overflow and external guest joining. Although a ZMH SFU can redistribute a meeting’s media, it does not handle client-to-cloud signaling connections during regular hybrid meetings. Users connected to a Meetings Hybrid appliance will continue to establish a bandwidth-light signaling connection with the meeting’s cloud server for in-meeting data and operations, like starting a cloud recording or updating the participants list.
In Internal mode the ZMH provides complete localization of the meeting media and signaling processing, similar to the Meeting Connector (MC) solution. However, unlike the MC, this mode supports access to more cloud services and can be enabled by the admin or the meeting host if granted the privilege. In this mode the ZMH does not allow for cloud media cascading, keeping all media and signaling on-premise. To enable Internal hybrid meetings the ZMH uses a functionality called Internal Multimedia Routing (iMMR).