CableLabs announced a collaboration with Zoom to validate Quality by Design (QbD), an industry framework designed to help broadband networks and applications work together for a better user experience.

The pilot project focuses on the exchange of real-time performance metrics, such as latency, jitter, and packet loss to automatically identify and resolve issues.

The broadband and connectivity consortium said the collaboration with Zoom helped it recognize the need for more real-time visibility into application performance as it works to develop the foundational means for future self-optimizing networks.

The partnership helped inform the development of Zoom’s client as a sensor capability, which was introduced in Zoom version 6.1.0, allowing CableLabs to integrate Zoom application performance data into the QbD framework. The duo said that 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,” Pat Jensen, distinguished architect at Zoom, said.

By combining application-level insights with network telemetry, operators are said to gain a clearer view of user experience and can make real-time adjustments to improve performance. This unified visibility is designed to preserve user privacy and meaningfully improve the user experience, regardless of access technology.

Detailed in a company blog, Shafi Khan, principal of the Future Infrastructure Group at CableLabs, stated that the Zoom app acted as a “sensor,” feeding live data, including packet loss and video resolution, to the network.

Because the data was live, the network could take “just-in-time” actions – such as prioritizing video traffic over other household data usage – to stop a call from dropping before the user even noticed a problem.

Khan said this framework is a stepping stone toward "agentic AI" in networking, with the ultimate goal being a network that senses, evaluates, and repairs itself automatically without human intervention or support calls.

“Networks are shifting from a focus on speed to a focus on experience,” Khan said. “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.”

CableLabs is also collaborating with Meta on the next phase of the QbD and Session Automation pilot.

This phase is said to extend support to applications that cannot share real-time telemetry by using advanced network monitoring and scoring methods. These approaches aim to 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.

CableLabs is inviting operators, application partners, and technology vendors to the next phase of interoperability, which requires testing and framework expansion.