The multi-billion-dollar gaming industry has grown dramatically over the past decade. Over 3 billion people around the world now play video games. e-Sports will also be introduced for the first time at the 19^th Asian Games in Hangzhou, with eight e-sports as medal events.

The deployment of 5G networks is set to add further impetus to the industry, allowing cloud gaming to come of age. The concept of playing a game on a remote server, rather than a personal console, has been around for a while. But the technology and internet speeds did not support a high-quality experience—until now.

Through edge computing and network slicing, the network edge can be brought closer to the user for enhanced processing capability. Lower latency, higher frame rates and easy setup across multiple devices create an amazing game-playing experience for users with better security and reduced hardware costs.

China Mobile’s cloud gaming service platform and 5G cloud network-edge collaborate cloud gaming solutions provide one-stop gaming cloudification over a guaranteed 5G private network. Service providers will not only deliver better gaming performance, but also standardize platform management and prevent illegal plug-ins.

It will make three major application scenarios possible: broad-based cloud gaming for the public; development of local e-sports venues, like e-sports hotels and cafes; and live broadcasts of e-sports events.

Online cloud gaming for everyone

Cloud gaming renders and compresses gaming visual before transmission, allowing users to play on device of their choices, including mobile phones, browsers and set-top boxes. Even players with a low-end device can enjoy an immersive, high-quality experience with easy one-touch access and no download needed for the game.

In partnership with Tencent, China Mobile recently demonstrated 5G Cloud Gaming based on edge computing and 5G Game Slicing technology. The first-of-its-kind platform was able to achieve local distribution across China without any Internet disruption by using China Mobile’s edge computing nodes to perform the encoding and decoding of local game streaming, rendering and computer audio/video services.

Thanks to 5G slicing, China Mobile can provide Tencent a private game network with high security and guaranteed high bandwidth and low latency. Tencent and China Mobile were able to reduce latency on the Tencent Cloud Gaming solution to below 20 milliseconds, supporting high-quality resolution for popular interactive, real-time FPS (first-person shooter) and MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) titles.

Another key benefit is that China Mobile Cloud Gaming is delivered as a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) with a software-as-a-service (SaaS) layer. It means that game developers and operators can create their own private cloud gaming platforms without investing in hardware or network services. PaaS layer gamifies and cloudifies platform management, while SaaS encourages industry innovation and promotes easy management of products, applications and users to ultimately support edge deployment of games and live broadcast of cloud gaming.

LAN cloud gaming for e-sports venues

Every e-sports tournament must overcome the challenges from network instability, high latency and high configuration needs to provide an acceptable gaming experience. Providing an e-sports-level gaming experience with low latency is also becoming vital at other venues, like new breeds of e-sports hotels and Internet cafes.

A world-class online e-sports experience can be achieved by:

• Building a flexible and stable 5G private network at the event venue;


• Conducting Quality of Service (QoS) acceleration or network slicing to achieve network segregation and maintain low latency, minimal jitter and low packet loss rates;


• Further improving on lags in game interaction by deploying edge nodes in the area surrounding the venue; and


• Deploying multiple layers of security to ensure smooth and secure livestreaming.

The upcoming Hangzhou Asian Games will be a showcase of China Mobile’s e-sports infrastructure. China Mobile will build an e-sports town that leverages its 5G private network, edge nodes, slicing technologies and venue simulation services. It will avoid network congestion to keep the event running smoothly, providing the professional players with a low-latency, high-bandwidth, high-quality connection while giving the international audience a stable viewing experience.

By combining a 5G private network with extended reality (XR) technologies, we can create a smart and scalable high-end gaming platform to enable e-sports tournaments, training environments and livestreaming services. We expect this to help reinvigorate Hangzhou by enabling the growth of a world-class creative digital economy sparked by e-sports.