ROUTE TYPES
IEPL, Relay, and Direct Connections Compared
These three route types are not a simple ranking from best to worst. Each involves different trade-offs in connection design, suitable usage periods, coverage, and operating cost. Understanding the differences helps you choose the right entry point within the same region.
IEPL
IEPL Dedicated Line
An IEPL dedicated line uses a dedicated connection path between the entry and exit points. After data enters the designated entry point, it travels across a planned international route to the target region before reaching the service through a local exit. This reduces reliance on ordinary public-internet paths, making continuous data transfer easier to maintain during congestion, route detours, or fluctuations in international connectivity.
These routes suit long video conferences, remote work, sustained uploads and downloads, extended AI tool conversations, and tasks that require consistent connectivity. Operating costs are generally higher than those of standard relay and direct routes, so they are better reserved for important tasks rather than every connection. When the target service is nearby and the workload is light, a relay route may offer a better balance of performance and resources.
Continuous transfers
Remote work
Long-lived connections
RELAY
Relay Connection
A relay connection first sends traffic to an entry point suited to the connection, then forwards it to the target region. Its value is not simply that traffic passes through one more stop; it uses a more suitable access direction and exit resources to avoid an inefficient direct path between the local network and the remote service. For cross-border access, relay routes often balance coverage, cost, and connection stability.
Everyday browsing, streaming, international websites, AI tools, and general office tasks can all start with a relay route. If several relay entries are available in one region, prioritize the route that matches your usual network and observe it for a while rather than switching repeatedly. Platforms also use the exit environment for regional detection, so stable use of one region is generally safer than frequent changes.
Everyday access
Balanced coverage
Streaming support
DIRECT
Direct Connection
A direct connection links the local network straight to an exit in the target region without an additional relay entry. Its structure is simple and its coverage is flexible, making it useful for extending coverage to distant regions or lower-frequency destinations. Actual performance depends more heavily on the local carrier network, international routing, and connectivity in the target region, so results may vary significantly across network environments.
Direct routes suit web lookups, regional checks, occasional access, and backup connectivity. If you only need to confirm content for a particular region, direct access is often sufficient. If pages load slowly, long-lived connections drop, or video playback is inconsistent, try a relay or IEPL dedicated line in the same region. Direct does not automatically mean lower quality; it is a basic option more exposed to public-internet routing.
Regional checks
Occasional access
Backup route
COST MODEL
Route Costs Depend on Network Resources, Not Region Names
Dedicated lines require more defined entry, exit, and international connection resources, so they generally cost more. Relay routes balance coverage and cost through shared entries and exits across multiple regions, while direct routes rely on public interconnection and have a lighter structure. Assign routes according to task importance instead of putting every application on the same route type by default.