When Milliseconds Matter: Unlocking New Levels of Autonomous Networking

Picture this: A packed arena with two elite eSports teams in the center-stage spotlight for the finals of a global gaming tournament.

A live stream carries the action to millions of fans across every time zone. A split-second glitch can ruin the thrill for the audience. But for the competitors, it’s more than the thrill that matters: A single instant of lag can flip victory to defeat.

Here, a slow network doesn’t just cause frustration. It means losing on the biggest stage in the world.

Professional gaming is just one glimpse into what tomorrow’s digital world demands. Innovations such as virtual and augmented reality experiences, remote surgery, smart factories, and autonomous vehicles all depend on intelligent networks that deliver guaranteed connectivity — and zero lag.

But today’s networks can’t handle this level of performance at scale. While they excel at moving large volumes of data reliably, they can’t predict, self-adjust, or act on intent.

The gap between traditional networks and next-generation possibilities is stark. And it’s the biggest barrier for communications and media providers aiming to meet customers’ expectations for fast speeds and immaculate service — at all times.

That’s the challenge several industry innovators sought to tackle with a TM Forum Moonshot Catalyst project. Dubbed “Game X”, this Moonshot Catalyst project showcased at the recent TM Forum DTW Event in Copenhagen uses competitive gaming as a baseline to envision the path to advanced autonomous networking.

It’s game on for autonomous networking

In competitive gaming — and many of today’s applications — latency and slowdown can be just as dangerous as outright downtime. That’s why communications and media companies are looking to reinvent their operating models with intelligent, adaptive, and automated networks as the way forward.

So how does an autonomous network differ from where we are today? It does more than just move packets. It also understands and anticipates what users need and reshapes itself to meet those expectations instantly.

The Game X Catalyst project showcases an autonomous networking solution centered on agentic AI and closed-loop automation to optimize network performance. The objective was to demonstrate how to leap to Level 4 of the TM Forum’s autonomous networking maturity model to deliver real-time, ultra-low latency, experience-centric services.

At the heart of this project is an intent-driven orchestration framework, built on open standards. The Game X Catalyst project reveals how communications and media providers can adapt, plugging in new partners and technologies and scaling across geographies.

This next-level approach includes two phases: planning and delivery, and then continuous service assurance. The result is “zero-wait,” “zero-touch,” and “zero-trouble” operations that span every type of network, including converged, cloud, fixed, and mobile.

Essentially, in the planning and delivery phase, a need translates into an intent for the network to achieve, not a manual list of tasks for humans to tackle. For example, when the need is hosting a world-class professional gaming tournament, desired network performance — such as low latency, jitter, and packet loss — is the intent. The intent activates a series of technical actions to expedite service provisioning.

During the continuous service assurance phase, cross-domain observability delivers end-to-end service assurance through continuous monitoring, predictive issue detection, and automated self-healing. This allows service provider organizations to benefit from faster incident response, proactive fault remediation, lag-free gameplay, and a seamless quality of experience (QoE) for players and viewers alike.

Although gaming was the first test case, the results of the Game X Catalyst project unlocked a cascade of new opportunities across multiple industries:

• A real-world use case to demonstrate the path to a Level 4 autonomous network that is relevant across sectors.
• Real-world validation of open API standards.
• A foundation for new B2B2X collaborations and service innovations.
• Vertical innovations in gaming, healthcare, finance, and more.

Specifically for communications and media companies, the results of the Game X Catalyst enables connectivity providers to take center stage as the orchestrators of next-generation, experience-led services.

Autonomous networking is the ultimate power up

Competitive gamers squaring off in the world finals is a telling example of just how high the stakes are today. Digital experiences are becoming so immersive, immediate, and critical that reliable connectivity is everything. And it needs to be predictive and hyper-personalized to meet what each moment demands.

This is the heart of the autonomous networking vision — delivering the QoE next-generation services depend on. And it’s not about removing people from the equation, but rather empowering them to create richer services and more meaningful human connections.

Industries are lining up to compete in markets defined by instant digital services. And communications and media companies are rising to meet the occasion.

Download the State of Observability in Communications & Media action guide to discover how industry leaders are gaining ROI with observability and AIOps to ensure connectivity and resilience.