A common trust model is essential for monetizing the network edge

In the world of online gaming, a millisecond of latency can mean the difference between life and death. Gamers are willing to pay more for the speed and performance, but only if a common trust model is in place on the network level to guarantee they will receive it.

Speed and performance are at the heart of the $190 billion gaming industry – an industry I am personally a huge fan of. Next-generation edge applications like online gaming and augmented reality (AR) place stringent demands on the network. Visibility into performance across increasingly complex network architectures is critical for delivering a common trust model in multi-vendor, multi-operator, and multi-cloud environments.

There’s a general acceptance that the edge will be critical, and of course much more critical for some use cases, like those I have discussed, than for others. The digital experience and new or enhanced revenue stream opportunity that lies with the edge will essentially be around speed. Not just speed or performance, but around the consistent unwavering delivery of that performance.

Performance: the heart of 5G and edge monetization

Dependable performance is necessary for the successful monetization of 5G and edge applications. In a first-person shooter, like Fortnite for example, being able to able to jump, turn and shoot at the same speed as your opponent is essential for success. Network operators understand that delivering a consistent, optimized experience for all players is critical.

And gamers are willing to pay for the assurance that they will receive the speed and performance services from their provider that are necessary to win. For example, a player about to embark on a critical mission in a game would likely pay an extra $5 per hour for a high-speed, assured and trusted connection for two hours before taking on that mission.

Even if only two percent of the 50 million U.S. Fortnite players paid for that trusted performance, perhaps four times per month, US operators would stand to make an extra $40 million per month.

AR applications are another major use case for delivering trusted, reliable performance. AR is steadily making inroads in a variety of industries, from gaming to manufacturing. Inconsistent network speeds and performance are very, very apparent in AR, however, causing a negative experience for the user that defeats the purpose of the application. Imagine delays and skipping around in your viewpoint – in this case, negative experience may even cause nausea!

How operators can ensure trusted performance

Next-generation apps place significant demands on network performance, and they require a number of variables at the network edge. These include:

• Higher throughput
• Millisecond data processing
• Ultra-low latency
• Loss and jitter requirements

Visibility into these requirements becomes much more difficult in today’s complex, hybrid network architectures. Security and threat detection play an important role as well, making edge resource monitoring and management a critical but complicated task.

What is needed is a common trust model – a consistent way of understanding the performance and experience across all the various infrastructures and vendors in the mesh.

MobiledgeX has developed an open edge ecosystem with the goal of delivering consistent and reliable network performance. Comprised of application developers, device makers, cloud providers, and technology companies, the initiative centers on a federation of mobile operator partners that host the server resources leveraged throughout the ecosystem.

A key differentiator of the ecosystem is the MobiledgeX edge stack, which also offers quality of experience, service and performance management as well as security threat detection capabilities. Accedian is that critical experience and security layer in the stack, providing forensically auditable attested application and network transaction data.

The cross-operator, cross-cloud, end-to-end traffic data is key to setting up a common trust model among mobile operators, application developers and consumers, ensuring that performance and experience are delivered as expected. The trust model is agnostic and easily scaled across multi-operator, multi-vendor and multi-edge infrastructure.

The result is seamless, uninterrupted delivery of 5G services and applications that can be easily monetized.

The edge opportunity

The edge represents an enormous opportunity for mobile operators. Using resources like MobiledgeX, operators can leverage edge assets and speed to monetize a variety of applications and services.

Those resources may also be used to add agility to the existing mobile and cloud infrastructure, enabling operators to provision and monetize new services quickly and easily. That can only happen if operators have the tools to effectively allocate resources and capacity to meet demand at an assured level of experience and security.

A common trust and assurance model will continuously monitor, measure and assess network and application performance. It will offer end-to-end visibility into application service and network performance, as well as customer experience.

The trust model is the key to successful monetization of 5G and the network edge. To learn more about how the common trust model may be used to assure edge cloud and network performance, as well as a seamless user experience, download the MobiledgeX & Accedian white paper.