First-of-its-kind real-time data sharing between apps and networks designed to deliver faster, more seamless user experiences
CableLabs announced the successful completion of a collaborative pilot with Zoom to validate Quality by Design (QbD), a new industry framework that enables broadband networks and applications to work together in real time to elevate and improve the user experience.
QbD marks a significant evolution in how networks and applications communicate. The framework enables the exchange of real-time performance metrics, such as latency, jitter, and packet loss. This creates a unified view of performance and enables issues to be identified and resolved automatically. By combining application-level insight with network telemetry, operators gain a clearer view of what users are experiencing and can make real-time adjustments to improve performance. This unified visibility is designed to preserve user privacy while meaningfully improving the user experience, regardless of access technology.
“Networks are shifting from a focus on speed to a focus on experience,” said Shafi Khan, principal, Future Infrastructure Group at CableLabs. “To truly understand user experience, we need visibility into how applications actually perform across real-world environments, from homes to offices, over Wi-Fi and access networks. This collaboration bridges the gap between networks and applications, giving us the insight needed to develop technical best practices and implementation guidance that show how those applications perform so broadband operators can make more informed decisions.”
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Through ongoing collaboration with Zoom, CableLabs identified the need for more real-time visibility into application performance. This engagement helped inform the development of Zoom’s Client as a Sensor capability. Introduced in Zoom version 6.1.0, the feature allows CableLabs to integrate Zoom application performance data, such as latency, jitter and packet loss, into the QbD framework. By sharing this telemetry, the network can better understand how Zoom is performing and automatically help improve service quality.
“CableLabs’ QbD framework plays an important role in creating a high-quality collaboration experience for our customers while helping operators better understand application requirements and optimize their network to provide the best performance,” said Pat Jensen, distinguished architect at Zoom.
To scale the technology, CableLabs is collaborating with Meta on the next phase of the QbD and Session Automation pilot. This phase will extend support to applications that cannot share real-time telemetry by using advanced network monitoring and scoring methods. These approaches enable accurate experience measurement while continuing to preserve user privacy. The result will be an expanded foundation for adaptive, context-aware networks that improve themselves over time.
The successful pilot marks a major milestone on the path to self-optimizing networks, reflecting CableLabs’ broader leadership in Context-Aware Networks, which combine real-time telemetry with agentic AI to create systems that self-diagnose and adapt. CableLabs is inviting operators, application partners, and technology vendors to join the next phase of interoperability testing and framework expansion.
As the leading innovation and R&D lab for the broadband industry, CableLabs creates global impact through its member companies around the world and its subsidiaries, Kyrio and SCTE. With a state-of-the-art research and innovation facility and a collaborative ecosystem with thousands of vendors, CableLabs delivers impactful and secure network technologies for the entire industry.
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