Feature Articles

Is your network intelligent enough to keep you gaming?

By Ken Wong - 3 Jan 2021

The role of AI and 5G in game streaming

Ushering in AI
 

What is an adaptive network and what makes it special? Is it key to supporting a bustling eSports scene?

Anup: It is an approach to transform today’s static Service Provider networks into a dynamic, programmable infrastructure built on analytics and automation so that the network can scale-at-demand and adapt to the needs of the user experience. This ideal network will essentially leverage analytics and intent-based policies to rapidly scale, self-configure, and self-optimise by constantly assessing network pressures and demands, and predictively reallocate network resources when and where they are needed, helping to ease the load on network providers.

By taking a more holistic view of network performance, flexibility, and operational simplicity, network providers can avoid the pitfalls of just ‘throwing more bandwidth at the problem’ and instead create a more sustainable and efficient network.

The relevance to eSports is that Adaptive Networks have the ability to deliver games with an optimum experience by autonomously marshalling networking resources based on policies determined by the service required.

 

Where will machine learning and AI fit into network design? What is wrong with the current load balancing that we need to use AI to solve latency issues?

In the telecom and networking space, the application of AI usually takes on the role of an enabler or optimiser. This means that the implementation of AI-based policies will enable network functions to run in an auto-pilot manner and improve network efficiency by anticipating and recommending corrective actions before a fault occurs.

In today’s increasingly complicated network operations, operational teams are constantly confronted by the operational burden of troubleshooting and resolving network issues. Operational teams may struggle to detect, isolate and correct issues when a surge in raw data obscures true insight into the state of the network. This makes it difficult to identify potential network outages which results in a slow and tedious troubleshooting process. These challenges can result in network troubles that last for weeks or even months, potentially causing businesses billions of dollars in lost revenue and productivity a year.

AI-powered analytics can enable simultaneous monitoring and analysis of hundreds of thousands of network ports and millions or even billions of events to address this challenge. Using advanced Machine Learning (ML) algorithms, combined with policy and orchestration, providers will be able to gain deep insight into the network and draw on that to manage the network efficiently and accurately and do so in a highly scalable manner. This is something that is gaining traction in the industry as well - according to Omdia’s 2019 report Artificial Intelligence: Impact and Opportunities, over 40% of CSPs are prioritising the implementation of AI in network fault prediction, detection and correction by 2020.

AI also helps in efficient real-time traffic management, making it easier for service providers to dynamically adapt to changing service demands and traffic patterns despite the fixed hardware capacity at any given time. This allows service providers to allocate available resources to where they are most needed and deliver consistent, quality customer service and end-user experience across the entire network while optimising the use of resources and associated costs.

 

Factoring in 5G into the equation


How will 5G change things for gaming and operators? Will it be an enabler for esports or is it just 5G marketing at work?

Anup: The development and integration of 5G infrastructure not only boosts connectivity speeds, especially in the last-mile, end-users will also experience significantly lower latency - a key expectation of gamers and operators alike.

In other words, 5G could support the delivery of richer, more interactive gaming experiences through real-time social interactions or associated video content.  Imagine a live, multimillion-dollar eSports match, where a lag or buffering delay in the network even in milliseconds could make a huge impact on the winning shot of the game. Stakeholders - the players, advertisers and sponsors - simply cannot afford any glitch in connectivity.

 

Some countries that have had a 5G rollout haven’t seen the adoption numbers expected. Why is this? What will be the killer 5G consumer driver?

Anup: While there is much anticipation towards the impact of 5G on businesses and across the industry verticals including gaming, large-scale adoption of 5G is still in its infancy with only the most basic consumer-targeted enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) services offered, which current consumer applications are not able to fully utilise. While some countries are still as the service trials stage as in Singapore.

Additionally, the path to 5G is expected to be paved with many challenges, according to a study by Accenture. In fact, there is not enough understanding of the potential and benefits of 5G. Besides faster speeds and lower lag time, consumers have yet to discover the integral role of 5G could play in our day-to-day lives. 

However, 5G does not only make a difference in improving the quality of gaming experiences. The real impact is on businesses and industrial applications, as 5G supports the performance required for digital technologies such as IoT and AI to function. With constant seamless connectivity, businesses would be able to derive more actionable insights from data in real-time, thereby enabling more effective decision-making.

 

Will the arrival of cloud gaming platforms on mobile (aka Project xCloud, Google Stadia, etc.) be the real driver or enabler for 5G adoption – instead of eSports?

Anup: The arrival of cloud gaming platforms has two primary drivers:

  1. Reduce the cost burden on consumers for high-performance gaming services by eliminating the need for dedicated consoles.
  2. Enable ubiquitous access to gaming services similar to how other cloud services.

However, in order to achieve these goals without sacrificing game performance, network connectivity and performance becomes even more crucial, which is where 5G comes into the picture. With 23% of total mobile connections expected to run on 5G networks by 2025, cloud gaming platforms on mobile will likely play a key role in driving the adoption of 5G.

Cloud gaming platforms like Google Stadia and Microsoft’s xCloud enable traditional ‘box’ games to live entirely in data centres, where users access games on demand. However, games are an interactive pursuit, as such, network bandwidth, latency, and jitter will have direct impacts on game results. The key characteristics of progressive 5G infrastructure - faster speeds and exceptionally low and guaranteed end-to-end latency - would thus help to optimise the gaming experience.

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