To make an Amazon Interactive Video Service (IVS) live stream more reliable, first identify whether the interruption is on the broadcaster’s side, the ingest network path, the IVS control plane, or viewer playback. Then use IVS Stream Health, CloudWatch, EventBridge events, and session analytics to confirm the symptom before changing encoder or firewall settings. IVS does not automatically fail over ingestion or transcoding, so recovery must be designed into the encoder or application.
Start by identifying who is affected
Buffering reports alone do not show where the fault is. Ask whether all viewers began buffering at once or whether the problem affects viewers on a particular network, device, or selected playback quality.
- Many viewers affected at the same time: check whether the broadcaster stopped sending data or the broadcast session became unstable. When IVS receives no content, it has nothing to deliver, so playback can buffer.
- Only some viewers affected: investigate viewer-side conditions, including local bandwidth competition, ISP congestion, adaptive bitrate behavior, and manual quality selection.
Do not assign cause from audience reports alone. Compare the reported times with broadcast metrics and session events.
What is stream starvation?
Stream starvation means IVS is receiving fewer bits over a period than the encoder indicated it would send. AWS identifies the encoder, local network conditions, and the route over the public internet to IVS as common causes. A starvation event is therefore a reason to investigate the broadcaster and first-mile path before treating buffering as an IVS service fault.
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How do I diagnose stream instability using IVS Stream Health?
- Open the IVS Stream Health dashboard for the affected channel or session and inspect the time series for video bitrate, frame rate, and audio bitrate.
- Compare the graph with the incident time. Look for a drop or interruption in the values and check stream-health analytics for encoder configuration, ingest metrics, and session events.
- Use CloudWatch for metrics and alarms. The dashboard helps with immediate visual diagnosis; CloudWatch is useful for monitoring metrics and building alarms.
- Check session analytics for current diagnosis and retrospective investigation of the session.
Use the production encoder profile and a healthy baseline from your own stream to decide what change merits attention. AWS’s guidance does not supply a universal bitrate alarm threshold that fits every encoder profile.
How do I monitor stream-starvation events?
AWS recommends using EventBridge stream-health change events for starvation start and end. Create EventBridge rules and targets that notify the operations team or trigger a response appropriate to your workflow. Pair those event notifications with CloudWatch metrics and IVS session analytics: an event can alert you to the change, while time-series metrics and session details help establish what happened.
CloudWatch metric retention and resolution are documented by AWS and can change. In the 2026 access-year documentation, AWS states that IVS CloudWatch statistics are kept for 15 months. Its documented high-resolution metric rollups are 3 hours at one-second resolution, 15 days at 60-second resolution, 63 days at five-minute resolution, and 455 days at one-hour resolution. Check the current [CloudWatch monitoring documentation](c-monitor) before relying on these windows for an operational or compliance requirement.
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Check local bandwidth and the route to IVS
If bitrate or starvation metrics point to the broadcast path, check whether other processes or devices are consuming bandwidth. If the local connection or ISP-to-IVS route appears insufficient, AWS recommends network diagnostics with the ISP. For viewer-side buffering, investigate competing local programs or devices and consider adaptive bitrate playback or selecting a lower quality.
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For a fixed broadcaster whose Wi-Fi is unreliable, wired Ethernet is an option to consider as part of setup. It is not a guaranteed cure for congestion or a substitute for measuring the actual path.
Verify firewall and egress rules for the ingest protocol
Reachability requirements depend on the chosen ingest protocol. AWS’s IVS Low-Latency Streaming network requirements list these broadcast paths:
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| Protocol or path | Destination and transport |
|---|---|
| RTMPS | *.live-video.net over TCP 443 |
| RTMP (insecure) | TCP 1935 |
| SRT | *.srt.live-video.net over TCP 9000 |
| WebRTC signaling and media | Signaling over TCP 4443; UDP ephemeral media ports 32768–61000 |
AWS says the IVS_LOW_LATENCY IP subnets must be accessible regardless of selected AWS Region because streamers can connect to any subnet. Before changing a production firewall, review the live IVS network requirements and AWS IP range data; the lists can change. AWS notes that the cited network details do not apply to AWS PrivateLink ingest.
Review encoder settings and reconnection behavior
Keyframe interval
AWS’s setup guide recommends a two-second keyframe interval as a standard setting. A one-second interval may reduce latency, but can lead the player’s adaptive bitrate (ABR) system to switch resolutions more often and may increase buffering in some conditions. AWS’s streaming-configuration guidance says not to set keyframes above five seconds: longer intervals increase startup latency and can leave segments without an IDR/keyframe, risking decode errors or visual distortions. Use the interval appropriate to your latency and playback trade-offs, and validate it with the actual player experience.
Broadcast path and forwarding
AWS describes the IVS console as a way to test and recommends native IVS Broadcast SDKs, especially for production scenarios. Third-party software or hardware encoders can be used where compatible with the IVS protocol and workflow. AWS strongly recommends against third-party restreaming or forwarding because it adds latency.
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Reconnect after data stops
AWS documents that when an encoder stops sending data, IVS waits 30 seconds and then disconnects. A manual or automatic reconnect starts a new stream. Configure and validate reconnection behavior in the encoder or client for your actual production workflow; do not assume IVS itself performs ingestion failover.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Understand IVS failover limits
IVS distributes video through a global data plane, and streamers automatically ingest to a nearby point of presence. That does not mean the service automatically fails over an ingestion or transcoding failure. AWS states that it does not provide automated failover for ingestion or transcoding failures and advises broadcasters to configure encoders or clients to re-ingest after broadcast failures.
Control-plane regional failover is a separate concern. AWS says IVS does not natively fail over its regional control plane; an application that needs this behavior must implement application-side logic. AWS also says it has no official guidance for managing regional channel failover, so treat any custom design as your own application architecture rather than a documented IVS failover recipe.
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Use mobile SDK features and capture useful error details
For mobile broadcasts, the IVS Broadcast SDK can automatically adjust bitrate as network conditions change. If a Broadcast SDK error occurs, retrieve the unique broadcast session identifier using the platform API and give it to AWS Support. The identifier is useful context, not a diagnosis or fix by itself. Also check that the SDK version is current and review its release notes when investigating a version-specific issue.
What IVS latency and availability figures do—and do not—mean
AWS describes latency as under 5 seconds for IVS low-latency channels and under 300 milliseconds for IVS real-time stages. These are service latency descriptions, not guarantees that a particular broadcast will be uninterrupted. AWS’s troubleshooting page states that IVS maintains a 99.9% SLA; consult the current IVS troubleshooting documentation and contractual SLA terms before treating that figure as a commitment applicable to your use.
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