AWS RTB Fabric FAQs

AWS RTB Fabric is a fully managed service that helps AdTech companies connect with their partners such as Amazon Ads, GumGum, Kargo, MobileFuse, Sovrn, TripleLift, Viant, Yieldmo, and more in three easy steps. You can run real-time bidding (RTB) workloads over an optimized, private network that delivers single-digit millisecond latency. With AWS RTB Fabric, you can save up to 80% compared to standard cloud networking costs. AWS RTB Fabric provides a dedicated, high-performance network environment for RTB operations and partner integrations without requiring colocated, on-premises infrastructure or upfront commitments.

AWS RTB Fabric also includes modules for optimizing traffic management, improving bid efficiency, and increasing bid response rates, all running inline within the service for consistent low-latency execution.

Real-time bidding (RTB) is a form of programmatic advertising which enables ad sellers and ad buyers to engage in split-second auctions for available digital ad space, which helps companies serve targeted ads.

When you use AWS RTB Fabric, a requester refers to the role that originates or sends a bid request. A responder refers to the role that receives the bid request, evaluates it, and returns a bid response. These roles are specific to an RTB transaction between two AdTech entities. For example, supply-side platforms (SSPs)—which represent publishers and manage their available ad inventory—act as requesters to send bid requests. Demand-side platforms (DSPs) or other downstream bidders—which represent advertisers and evaluate bids in real-time for available ad impressions—act as responders.

Roles can be dynamic depending on the architecture and flow of RTB transactions. For example, an SSP can act as a responder when responding to a bid request received by another SSP in an ad exchange auction. With AWS RTB Fabric, SSPs and DSPs can be configured to act as either requesters or responders to meet their specific use case or integration needs.

Learn more about a requester, responder, and link here.

Using the AWS Management Console, command line interface (CLI) operations, or infrastructure-as-code tools such as AWS CloudFormation and Terraform, you will register an RTB gateway. AWS RTB Fabric automatically generates secure endpoints that can be shared with your AdTech partners. With the AWS RTB Fabric API, you will create optimized, private connections to securely exchange RTB traffic across different environments. External Links are also available to connect with your AdTech partners outside of AWS RTB Fabric, such as those operating on-premises or in third-party cloud environments. This approach reduces your integration time and simplifies collaboration with your AdTech partners.

AWS RTB Fabric helps you optimize network performance and reduce latency by routing requests and responses within an Availability Zone (AZ) shared between AdTech partners. AWS RTB Fabric offers native load balancing functionalities to automatically distribute RTB traffic directly to your compute infrastructure. You can also configure built-in traffic management modules to execute RTB operations based on RTB traffic patterns which helps you protect RTB workloads and improve operational efficiency.nal efficiency.

AWS RTB Fabric provides full support for multi-role AdTech applications. You can register an RTB gateway as either a requester or responder. You can configure each role—as a requester or responder—and share the same underlying compute resources. For example, a supply-side-platform (SSP) can configure a responder gateway to receive bid requests from publishers, and a requester gateway to forward bid requests to demand-side-platforms (DSPs). We recommend that you create separate RTB gateways for each use case as each role includes distinct requirements. 

As a requester (e.g., supply-side-platform) - Use the AWS Management Console, command line interface (CLI) operations, or infrastructure-as-code tools such as AWS CloudFormation and Terraform to create a requester gateway, select the responders (demand-side-platform), and send a request to link and connect. When your request is accepted, you can create and update the endpoint URL for the specific responder. If your request is declined, you will retain the original endpoint URL for that responder (demand-side-platform). Subsequent requests to the AWS RTB Fabric endpoint will then be routed via that service.

As a responder (e.g., demand-side-platform) - Use the AWS Management Console or command line interface (CLI) operations to create a responder gateway and accept requests received from requesters (SSPs) to connect or deny requests. To facilitate requesters that have not adopted AWS RTB Fabric, you can create two subdomain entries in your DNS registry: one pointing to the AWS RTB Fabric responder gateway, and one pointing to the responder app (demand-side-platform) endpoint in use today. Finally, you can allocate a percentage of traffic to each of the entries.

To get started with AWS RTB Fabric, you must have an active AWS account. To connect with your AdTech partner, you must have a business agreement with your partner in place and obtain their RTB Fabric Link ID. AWS RTB Fabric is designed to be flexible—you can run your RTB application using the AWS compute service of your choice including Amazon EC2, EKS, or ECS. You can deploy and connect your RTB workloads using your preferred architecture, making it fast and easy to set up.

With AWS RTB Fabric, you can easily connect with your AdTech partners on AWS. As a requester (typically an SSP), you can initiate connections to a responder (typically a DSP) on AWS RTB Fabric. Responders can review and accept connection requests to start receiving RTB traffic.

You can also connect to your AdTech partners outside of AWS. AWS RTB Fabric supports RTB External Links, which allow requesters to send OpenRTB requests to responders not yet deployed on AWS RTB Fabric. This is ideal for connecting with external SSPs or DSPs using on-prem, colocation, or other cloud providers. As a responder, you may also receive incoming requests from requesters not on AWS RTB Fabric by registering an external link gateway endpoint.

With AWS RTB Fabric, you can connect to advertising technology companies anywhere, with no up-front commitments, to send RTB requests and responses through a private network within an AWS Region and/or outside of AWS RTB Fabric. When you use AWS RTB Fabric, you pay a price per billion RTB requests or responses you send. The price you pay depends on your monthly volume, size, and RTB requests or responses you send, within or outside AWS RTB Fabric. Additionally, you pay a low fixed rate on the number of RTB no-bid responses you send. You are not charged for receiving requests or responses. Learn more about AWS RTB Fabric pricing here.

AWS RTB Fabric optionally provides intelligent traffic distribution as an alternative to traditional load balancers. AWS RTB Fabric uses DNS-based routing to dynamically distribute incoming RTB requests across healthy hosts within the responder’s infrastructure. DNS-based traffic routing helps ensure efficient distribution of the queries per second (QPS) you run within each Availability Zone (AZ) to help improve performance by maintaining traffic close to responder workloads. As the responder scales, AWS RTB Fabric automatically adjusts DNS records to route traffic to healthy, in-zone hosts—optimizing for both cost and latency. This approach eliminates the need for responders to manage their own networking infrastructure for traffic routing, while maintaining the low-latency and high-throughput requirements of real-time bidding workloads.

AWS RTB Fabric supports commonly adopted versions of OpenRTB, including OpenRTB 2.6, custom extensions, and headers supported by IAB's OpenRTB protocol. AWS RTB Fabric does not support OpenRTB 3.0 (AdCOM).

AWS RTB Fabric does not support multiplexing or fan-out to your multiple AdTech partners.

AWS RTB Fabric offers configurable traffic management modules to help you manage RTB traffic patterns based on attributes, characteristics, and volume. You can configure built-in traffic management rules to execute automated RTB operations or integrate your own ad decisioning functionality in the network path before your RTB workflows. AWS RTB Fabric provides built-in capabilities to help you protect RTB workloads and improve operational efficiency:

• Rate limiter - Control the rate of requests by limiting queries per second (QPS) to manage performance from traffic spikes.
• OpenRTB filter - Filter RTB requests and responses based on OpenRTB protocol specifications such as format, location, and more.
• Error masking - Mask sensitive information when errors occur during RTB processing.

Learn more about the modular capabilities here.

AWS RTB Fabric is available in US East (N. Virginia), US West (Oregon), Asia Pacific (Singapore), Asia Pacific (Tokyo), Europe (Frankfurt), and Europe (Ireland).

Cloud security at AWS is the highest priority. As an AWS customer, you benefit from data centers and network architectures that are built to meet the requirements of the most security-sensitive organizations. Security and Compliance is a shared responsibility between you and AWS.

The shared responsibility model describes this as security of the cloud and security in the cloud:

Security of the cloud – AWS is responsible for protecting the infrastructure that runs AWS services in the AWS Cloud. AWS also provides you with services that you can use securely.

Third-party auditors regularly test and verify the effectiveness of our security as part of the AWS Compliance Programs. To learn about the compliance programs that apply to RTB Fabric, see AWS Services in Scope by Compliance Program.

Security in the cloud – Your responsibility is determined by the AWS service that you use. You are also responsible for other factors including the sensitivity of your data, your company’s requirements, and applicable laws and regulations.