On the eve of MWC Barcelona 2026, Huawei introduced a new mobile transport network architecture designed for what the company calls the Agentic Mobile Broadband (MBB) era, DKNews.kz reports.
The announcement signals a shift in how telecom networks are built — and more importantly, how operators plan to make money from them. If previous generations focused on connecting people and devices, the next phase is about delivering premium digital experiences.
From Traffic to Experience
For years, telecom operators measured success largely by how much data users consumed. But as networks become faster and more intelligent, the industry is beginning to rethink that model.
Huawei argues that the evolution toward 5G-Advanced (5G-A) marks a turning point.
- 4G connected people.
- Early 5G enabled massive IoT connectivity.
- 5G-A, according to Huawei, moves toward an “intelligent Internet of everything”, where sensing, computing and communication work together.
In that environment, simply selling gigabytes of data may no longer be enough. Instead, operators are increasingly looking to monetize the quality of user experience — offering guaranteed performance for services such as immersive XR, industrial automation or autonomous transport.
That shift requires something traditional mobile transport networks were never designed for: deterministic performance, where latency, reliability and bandwidth can be predicted and guaranteed.
Why Existing Networks Are Struggling
As 5G-Advanced deployments scale worldwide, operators are encountering several structural limitations in their transport networks.
First, capacity is becoming a bottleneck. Ultra-HD video, 3D streaming and real-time services are pushing peak traffic at base stations beyond 8 Gbps, overwhelming traditional gigabit Ethernet connections.
Second, routing flexibility remains limited. More than half of access devices still rely on Layer-2 switching, which can force traffic to take inefficient paths between sites — a major problem for latency-sensitive services like industrial control systems or emerging low-altitude aviation networks.
Third, traditional networks lack programmability. As new industries rely on connectivity — from autonomous vehicles to edge computing — operators need to dynamically allocate bandwidth and guarantee performance levels. Older architectures struggle to meet those requirements.
Huawei’s Three-Pillar Architecture
To address these issues, Huawei presented a redesigned mobile transport architecture built around three core capabilities.
10GE / 25GE to the Base Station
The first pillar is a significant upgrade in access capacity. By expanding connections to 10-gigabit and 25-gigabit Ethernet, operators can remove bandwidth bottlenecks and fully unlock the potential of high-performance 5G radio.
That kind of capacity is expected to support services such as 8K video streaming, XR applications and AI-driven visual platforms, which demand extremely high throughput.
Layer-3 Routing at the Edge
The second element is Layer-3 routing directly to the base station.
Instead of relying heavily on switching, routing intelligence moves closer to the network edge. This allows traffic between stations to take the shortest possible path, reducing latency for applications like industrial automation, edge computing and real-time control systems.
End-to-End SRv6
The third pillar is Segment Routing over IPv6 (SRv6) deployed across the entire network.
This technology enables dynamic traffic steering and real-time optimization. When congestion occurs, the network can automatically reroute traffic and release previously suppressed capacity.
According to Huawei, this can increase data over-usage (DOU) by more than 20 percent, potentially boosting operator revenue.
Early Deployments Show Revenue Gains
Huawei also highlighted several early deployments of the architecture.
In China, upgrading access connections from 10GE to 25GE helped support new services such as glasses-free 3D content, XR experiences and AI-based applications.
In South Africa, an operator deployed Huawei’s SRv6-based solution to enable real-time traffic optimization. By releasing suppressed network capacity, the operator reportedly increased average revenue per user (ARPU) from $18 to $25.
A Platform for Future Digital Services
Huawei frames the upgrade not simply as a speed boost, but as a fundamental change in how telecom infrastructure functions.
Traditional transport networks primarily acted as data pipelines. In the Agentic MBB era, Huawei says they must evolve into intelligent service platforms capable of guaranteeing differentiated user experiences.
For telecom operators, that distinction could become critical.
As immersive media, AI services, industrial automation and autonomous mobility expand, networks will need to deliver predictable performance — not just raw bandwidth.
And in that world, the ability to guarantee experience may become the next major revenue engine for the global telecom industry.
