Announcing general availability of RDP Shortpath

We are pleased to announce the general availability of RDP Shortpath for public networks. RDP Shortpath improves the transport reliability of Azure Virtual Desktop connections by establishing a direct UDP data flow between the Remote Desktop client and session hosts. This feature is enabled by default for all customers. We started deploying RDP Shortpath in September and now the feature is 100% rolled out.

What is RDP Shortpath for public network? 

RDP Shortpath lets user sessions directly establish a Unified Data Platform (UDP) flow between client and session host using the Simple Traversal Underneath NAT (STUN) and Interactive Connectivity Establishment (ICE) protocols. This enhances transport reliability for Azure Virtual Desktop. 

To ensure a seamless rollout and that most customers receive the improved reliability RDP Shortpath offers without making extra work for the IT admins, we have enabled this feature for all connections by default. Outbound connectivity is required between the session hosts and client to function as intended. Therefore, we recommend allowing outbound UDP connectivity to the Internet. IT Admins can limit the port range used to listen to the incoming UDP flow. For more information about how to configure firewalls for RDP Shortpath, see allow outbound UDP connectivity.

To learn more about the feature and configuration, please check out Azure Virtual Desktop RDP Shortpath for public networks.