8 mins read
What are low-latency networks?
Low-latency networks are built to reduce the time lag between transmitting and receiving data. This time lag can stem from multiple sources, including the type of network, embedded technology (like 4G or 5G), network congestion, and cell radius (i.e., the coverage area of the network).
From online meetings to online gaming and trading, low-latency networks are designed to support diverse use-cases which involve complex networking paths and increased traffic volumes.
Why Low-latency networks are a business imperative
Low-latency networks are designed to support complex networking paths and increased traffic volumes, resulting in:
- Elevated customer experiences: From faster webpage loads, smoother video calls, enhanced mobile application experiences, and seamless online transactions, low-latency networks upgrade customer experiences boosting customer loyalty and satisfaction.
- Monetization opportunities: As demand for premium services grows, operators can leverage low latency to build tiered offerings and unleash new monetization opportunities vital for enterprise and IoT use cases across manufacturing, healthcare, and logistics.
How do they differ from ultra-low latency networks?
Ultra-low latency networks go beyond low-latency networks, delivering near instantaneous responses, resulting in a negligible delay in data transmission. Their speeds are measured in microseconds. Ultra-low latency networks ensure deterministic latency with minimized variations, utilize specialized hardware, and employ optimized protocols.
Ultra-low latency networks (or low latency 5G networks) facilitate more specialized and critical applications:
- Remote surgery, where doctors perform surgical procedures in real-time with negligible network delay,
- Industrial automation, where factory systems and processes need to be made operational, timely and reliably,
- Cloud gaming, where players can stream smooth gaming experiences on multiple devices,
- Disaster management, where emergency situations can be handled via faster, highly responsive communication and data sharing.
Ultra-low latency networks are indeed crucial in cases where even slight delays can significantly deter operations, cause losses, and impact performance.
What makes 5G an ultra-low latency network?
5G networks achieve ultra-low latency primarily because of:
- new radio technology that enables faster and precise data transfer
- more efficient data handling across multiple users and device
- edge computing that processes data closer to the user
- network slicing that ensures uninterrupted network performance
How roaming architectures disrupt low-latency networks
One of the major bottlenecks for low-latency in roaming is home routing. When a user in Spain roams on a German network, their data first travels to Germany and then back, adding 100ms+ of latency. This “hairpin” routing deters low latency in roaming as the data first travels back to the central core network of the home operator before reaching the user.
The data transfer takes an even bigger hit in case of low latency 5G networks which fuel the demands of IoT applications.
Roaming architectures introduce considerable geographic distances between the home network and the visiting country network, along with complex, diverted routing, and several network hops. This is why ultra-low latency 5G fails to provide sub-10ms latency as standard roaming architectures dictate data transfer procedures to the home country rather than the local network of the user’s visiting country.
Latency vs. bandwidth vs. throughput
While latency refers to the time delay in data transfer, bandwidth is the capacity of a given network to transmit data and is generally measured in bits per second (or bps). On the other hand, throughput is the actual data transfer that takes place over a network. In real world scenarios, the network throughput is generally lesser than the network bandwidth.
Simply put, latency drives responsiveness, bandwidth provides the data flow capacity, and throughput determines how efficiently that capacity is delivered.
Moreover, as roaming enters the network, latency increases due to widened geographical distance and network hops, throughput reduces due to inefficient routing, and bandwidth constraints set in with traffic congestion on visited networks.
Here are some benchmark latency thresholds as per use-cases:
| Use case | Latency |
| Cloud gaming | Below 50 ms is ideal for fast-paced cloud gaming (NextGComm) |
| Connected vehicles | As low as 1 ms (Horizon Connect) |
| Industrial IoT | As low as 50 ms for a bidirectional response (Eseye) |
What is Roaming Breakout? How does it reduce network latency?
Achieving low latency depends on several factors, including an improvement in the core network hardware, a reduction in the distance travelled by data, and efficiency in data routing protocols.
In industries that require high-speed communications, real-time data exchange, and increased data processing, low latency provides a competitive advantage.
To solve the low-latency issue, telecommunication companies (telcos) are increasingly moving towards Roaming or Local Breakout, where the end-user’s data is directly serviced by the visited networks, instead of being directed to the home network and back. This results in greater bandwidth and lower latency.
Some other benefits of implementing Roaming Breakout are:
- Sub-100 millisecond latency, enabling seamless network performance by significantly reducing ping times
- Reduced infrastructure costs through efficient routing
- Compliance with local regulatory and data sovereignty laws
- Real-time, uninterrupted connections, ideal for IoT and connected mobility use cases
Home Routing Roaming vs. Local Breakout Roaming: Which is better?
| Parameters | Home Routing Roaming | Local Breakout Roaming |
| End-user data traffic | Serviced by the home network exercising complete control over the user’s data traffic |
Typically serviced by international carriers by implementing Local Packet Gateways |
| Routing | Inefficient routing, higher latency |
Efficient routing, lower latency |
| Roaming control | Home network retains greater control and visibility over user traffic, while the visited network has no control |
Visited network has greater control over user traffic locally, while home network loses control over their users |
| Network architecture | 3GPP release 8 network architecture model with a home network interface |
3GPP release 8 network architecture model with visited Public Land Mobile Networks (PLMN) interface |
| When is it recommended? | Suitable when centralized control and simpler roaming management (without local network integration) are needed |
Suitable when lower latency and direct routing are needed |
| Ultra-low latency roaming | Does not support ultra-low latency roaming |
Supports ultra-low latency roaming |
How BICS empowers telcos
Local breakout handles data traffic closer to the end users for consistent, high quality connectivity experiences across destinations. BICS enables local breakout solutions for telcos through its global IPX backbone, pre-deployed platforms, and scalable architecture, enabling high-speed global data roaming.
Across both consumer and enterprise services, we provide:
- Real-time traffic steering of roaming data sessions, based on multiple criteria such as location, subscriber profile, and network conditions
- A customizable framework with tailorable policies, deployment models, and traffic steering strategies
- Full flexibility from standalone intelligent routing to a fully integrated network ecosystem
- Direct reach to roaming partners for high-performance connectivity
BICS delivers a comprehensive, tailor-made roaming breakout solution for ensuring scalable and seamless roaming performance.
How to select a low-latency roaming solution?
A low-latency roaming solution must deliver high-speed global roaming with regional breakout capabilities for D2D and IoT applications, improving user experiences and addressing specific enterprise needs. Here’s what you need to look out for while evaluating a low-latency roaming solution:
- Pre-deployed regional infrastructure vs. on-demand spin-up: Unlike on-demand spin-ups where investments are needed for building the infrastructure, pre-deployed platforms require no infrastructure investment or operational resources.
- Managed service vs. DIY build: Via the managed service route, your business can effectively simplify operations across provisioning, monitoring, optimization, and troubleshooting. But in case of a DIY build, your business needs to set up these processes and controls in-house, requiring significant upfront capital expenditure along with long-term human capital investments.
- Data localization & sovereignty compliance: By keeping the data traffic within the defined geographical boundaries, low latency roaming with local breakout adheres to data localization and sovereignty laws.
- Coverage for both consumer and IoT use-cases: Low latency roaming solutions with local breakout enable seamless navigation, messaging, and video calls across consumer use-cases. Additionally, they support IoT use-cases such as logistics, smart manufacturing, remote monitoring, and telemedicine.
Conclusion
As the demand for high network connectivity across consumer, IoT, enterprise, and mobility domains continues to grow, low-latency roaming solutions with local and regional breakout capabilities will only become a necessity going forward.
Are you ready to transition to the new era of scalable connectivity? Talk to an expert!
FAQs
Why is low‑latency roaming important for IoT and M2M use-cases?
Low-latency roaming enables real-time operations, faster response times, and local processing, which is essential for effectively supporting and scaling IoT and M2M use-cases.
How does low‑latency roaming support connected vehicles and automotive services?
Using 5G SA and cloud technologies, low-latency roaming enables real-time, uninterrupted data traffic exchange for connected vehicles and automotive services, ensuring seamless cross-border connectivity for fleet management, autonomous navigation, and emergency alerts.
How to reduce network latency?
Network latency can be reduced by optimizing routing, reducing network hops, and using high- performance network equipment with local breakout.
Is low‑latency roaming a 5G‑only capability, or can it work on 4G/LTE?
No, low-latency roaming isn’t a 5G-only capability. It works on 4G/LTE as well, but 5G is better equipped to handle ultra-low latency roaming use-cases.
Can low‑latency roaming reduce international backhaul and transit costs?
Yes, low-latency roaming can reduce international backhaul and transit costs by utilizing local and regional breakouts for data transmission, bypassing expensive, long-distance international transits.
Is low‑latency roaming available worldwide or only in selected locations?
Low-latency roaming is only available in selected locations, including Europe, Asia, the US, and Australia.
Why isn’t low‑latency roaming widely deployed today?
Low-latency roaming isn’t widely deployed today because data traffic is still being routed back to the user’s home country.
How does low‑latency roaming fit into the evolution toward 5G SA roaming?
5G SA roaming powers high-performing, reliable, and seamless connectivity experiences across consumer and IoT use-cases, elevating user experiences and opening up new monetization paths. 5G SA is transforming global connectivity from a static, centralized infrastructure (home network) to a more dynamic, distributed model (local breakout).
What is regional breakout and how does it compare to local breakout?
Regional breakout is a networking technique in which the data traffic is routed through regional cloud data centers. However, a local breakout is a networking technique in which the data traffic is routed to the internet through a Regional Packet Gateway, positioned close to the local access point or local ISP, bypassing the centralised core network.
What kind of latency improvement can low‑latency roaming deliver?
Low-latency roaming can deliver an 83% reduction in response time compared to conventional roaming services. We had even conducted a joint trial with SK Telecom which led to a remarkable latency of 90 ms in a 5G connection between a mobile device in Spain and SKT’s mobile network in South Korea.
