Zain Group’s Saudi Arabian subsidiary has partnered with Huawei to conduct a network slicing pilot for online gaming sessions over its fixed wireless broadband (FWA) service. The trial, which utilized Huawei’s gaming accelerator, demonstrated improvements in online gaming performance, including reduced latency and enhanced data speeds.
Huawei highlighted the increasing adoption of FWA in Saudi Arabia, driven by the country’s diverse geography, which includes deserts, forests, and mountain ranges. Gaming has become especially popular, with over 25 million gamers in Saudi Arabia, representing 67% of the population.
Huawei’s gaming acceleration technology, known as Service Turbo, was deployed in this pilot alongside a network simulation designed to replicate a full network load. The implementation led to a 90% reduction in gaming jitters and a 70% decrease in latency, significantly improving the gaming experience. The technology used Huawei’s 5G CPE Pro 6 router and custom network slicing, which prioritized the scheduling and allocation of network resources to optimize performance.
This proof of concept is expected to enhance Zain KSA’s FWA broadband service, which is being upgraded from 5G to 5G-A, according to Huawei.
