The wireless access nodes are presently being distributed across different physical platforms. A Radio Unit (RU) is typically attached to a tower and has antennas and radios. The RU is linked to a Distributed Unit (DU) that typically handles the lower layers of baseband signal processing. The DU is physically linked to a Centralized Unit (CU) that typically handles the higher layers of baseband signal processing and is linked to a network core. In some wireless communication networks, the CU also hosts some network elements that were previously in the network core.

The wireless user devices execute user applications. Some of the user applications requires low-latency data communications. For example, an augmented-reality video-conferencing application may have to annotate and share live video among multiple wireless user devices. To serve the low-latency user applications, network elements called application servers are used to handle user data and/or control the handling of the user data for a specific user application. For example, an application server may annotate and share live video among augmented reality users. The application server may control other network elements that handle the live video among the augmented reality users.

As a wireless user device moves around and changes wireless access nodes, the wireless user device typically remains coupled to its original application server. Unfortunately, the extension of the user connection back to the same application server adds unwanted latency to the application session. Wireless access nodes do not handover wireless user devices in a manner that efficiently and effectively preserves the performance of their low-latency applications. Moreover, the wireless communication networks do not optimize their CUs to enhance the performance of the low-latency applications.