Edge Caching in 5G: How to Reduce RTT to 50 ms

In today’s fast-paced digital world, users expect applications to provide instant feedback, whether they are playing games, interacting with ads, or using business applications. Latency, the time it takes for data to travel between the user and the server, plays a critical role in ensuring seamless user experiences. While 5G networks promise impressive round-trip times (RTT) as low as 10–20 ms, the reality of performance often falls short. In real-world environments, latency remains between 80–120 ms due to the long-haul network traffic traveling to centralized data centers. This discrepancy significantly impacts applications, especially in industries like gaming, e-commerce, and digital advertising, where milliseconds can mean the difference between a smooth user experience and abandonment.

One promising solution to this issue is content caching at the edge—specifically, leveraging AWS Wavelength zones integrated into the 5G infrastructure. Edge caching brings content and services closer to the user, reducing RTT to approximately 50 ms and ensuring a more consistent latency performance. This localized approach not only boosts responsiveness but also alleviates congestion and reduces load on centralized data centers, offering significant performance benefits in real-world conditions.

These latency improvements can revolutionize mobile and desktop applications, enabling faster ad fetches, real-time analytics synchronization, and smoother user interactions in mobile games and apps. For developers, this translates into higher monetization metrics, including ARPDAU (Average Revenue Per Daily Active User), lifetime value (LTV), and effective cost per mille (eCPM). A study by AWS and AppsFlyer highlights that these metrics, which measure user engagement and revenue generation, significantly improve when edge caching is used in conjunction with reduced latency.

Assessing Audience and Monetization Model: A Detailed Framework

To build an effective monetization strategy, developers must first understand their audience. Audience segmentation based on various factors such as demographics, device platform (Windows, macOS, browser extension), and network environment (e.g., 5G-enabled regions) is crucial for estimating ARPDAU and LTV. This segmentation not only helps optimize marketing strategies but also enables better targeting of high-value user cohorts.

According to AppsFlyer, in-app advertising (IAA) revenue is growing rapidly—26% year-over-year in non-gaming apps and 7% in gaming apps. Moreover, LTV is increasingly used to guide user acquisition strategies, shifting the focus from just acquiring users to acquiring users who provide the highest long-term value. With these insights, selecting the right monetization model becomes critical. One model that stands out is Infatica’s SDK, which uses a peer-to-business SDK approach compared to more traditional relay-based or proxy-based solutions. Unlike alternatives, Infatica’s SDK works invisibly in the background, making it a seamless solution that doesn’t disrupt the user experience.

Edge Caching Architecture and AWS Wavelength Integration

At the heart of this solution lies edge caching, a technology that minimizes latency by moving compute resources closer to end users. AWS Wavelength’s integration with 5G infrastructure positions compute power within telecommunications networks, ensuring that traffic doesn’t need to travel through congested public networks or centralized data centers. This results in a significant reduction in latency. Edge caching is especially valuable for media-heavy applications, such as video streaming, gaming, and real-time analytics, which demand low-latency environments.

Case studies from Verizon and solution briefs on AWS further emphasize the benefits of this architecture. In particular, research on hierarchical caching and runtime mapping between edge and cloud environments has shown that edge caching can reduce latency by up to 50% in real-world deployments (arXiv 1602, arXiv 2109).

How Infatica SDK Solves the Latency and Monetization Challenge

Infatica’s SDK is an integral part of this ecosystem. It supports macOS, Windows, and browser environments, covering 100% of the active user base. The SDK routes all communications through AWS Wavelength edge nodes when available, significantly reducing RTT to around 50 ms. This optimization allows applications to deliver faster, more responsive experiences while ensuring minimal impact on CPU and battery usage (measured at less than 1% CPU idle time).

Furthermore, Infatica’s SDK leverages a Sub-ID-based anonymized cohort tracking system, ensuring compliance with privacy regulations such as GDPR and CCPA. This allows developers to generate predictable revenue without compromising user privacy or experience. The SDK’s background revenue generation model is both transparent and efficient, ensuring a seamless monetization strategy.

Seven-Stage Deployment and Scaling Process

Deploying the Infatica SDK is straightforward, following a seven-stage process. The process begins with a comprehensive audience analysis, followed by the selection of the Infatica SDK as the monetization model. Once the SDK is integrated, developers proceed with Sub-ID mapping and analytics tagging to track usage and performance. Rigorous testing ensures latency reduction and battery efficiency, which are key metrics for optimizing user experience.

Once these metrics confirm an increase in ARPDAU, LTV, and SDK-only revenue, scaling can begin in new geographies. This step is based on the AWS Wavelength edge node availability map, which helps guide expansion to areas where edge caching infrastructure is available.

Puzzle Game Case Study

A practical example of Infatica SDK’s success can be seen in a puzzle app with 500,000 MAU. The integration of the Infatica SDK resulted in a reduction of RTT from 110 ms to 50 ms, which led to a 14% increase in ARPDAU, bringing it to €0.14 per user. SDK revenue reached €28,000/month, which accounted for approximately 40% of the app’s total revenue. The app’s LTV of €2.50 per user over a 1.5M lifetime SDK revenue illustrates the powerful monetization potential offered by this solution.

Comparative Platform Analysis

Infatica’s SDK offers several advantages over competitors like Honeygain and Proxyrack. Unlike these platforms, Infatica’s SDK requires no visual UI elements or manual configuration, making it a completely invisible solution for the user. Honeygain, for example, requires 3-5% CPU load and is more intrusive, while Proxyrack’s proxy-based access model relies on manual user sessions. Infatica’s approach ensures a silent, compliant, and deterministic revenue model based on cohort performance, offering a significant advantage in terms of user engagement and monetization stability.

Google Play Policy Alignment in 2025

As of 2025, Google Play requires apps to disclose background monetization activities and ad targeting strategies. Infatica’s SDK is aligned with these new requirements by operating outside traditional ad SDKs, meaning it does not rely on banner creatives or trackers. The SDK includes built-in user consent logic, hashed IDs, and a compliance checklist, ensuring compatibility with evolving DMA/ads transparency rules.

Google Play 2025 Compliance Checklist

• Opt-in prompts for monetization activities
• Separation of SDK license revenue from other in-app purchases
• Adherence to Play Store subscription and data-handling policies