5G to bring enhanced connectivity to XR

Extended Reality (XR), an umbrella term for Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Mixed Reality (MR), will be the next-generation computing platform which aims to create virtual experiences indistinguishable from reality. According to a study, Extended Reality and 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) Evolution is from trade body 5G Americas.

“XR will greatly influence the way people play, work, learn, and connect,” says Chris Pearson, President of 5G Americas. “Its use cases have a broad impact on the enterprise, institutions, education, emergency response and in manufacturing.”

There are numerous XR experiences with applications in a variety of scenarios. Additional VR applications may include online gaming, virtual event participation, and educational experiences, while mobile AR use cases may include video gaming, mission critical services, online shopping, spatial-audio multiparty calls and conferences, and digital co-design.

5G New Radio developed by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is designed to support emerging XR use cases that require rigorous key performance indicators. Specifically, low latency, high reliability, lower power consumption, and high capacity are key requirements for the success of XR.

Such demands may include quasi-periodic traffic in large chunks, irregular intervals, and variable size, as well as high data rates including uplink for AR services, simultaneous transmission of 3D video stream, and control data over the same end-to-end connection.

While 5G benefits XR, emerging use cases will require further end-to-end optimisations and potential enhancements for 5G networks, which continue to evolve with each new 3GPP specification release.

Rel-15 and Rel-16 offer a decent foundation for XR, but they were not specifically designed or optimised for XR support. Potential enhancements in 3GPP Rel-17 and Rel-18 are expected to optimize XR support including XR awareness, power optimisations, and capacity enhancements.

“High-quality XR is becoming increasingly accessible and continues to evolve,” notes Orlett Pearson, Senior Specialist Standardization at Nokia and leader of the 5G Americas working group for the study. “Digital Twins, AI/ML, IoT, are integral to the evolution and implementation of XR, which may usher in virtually unlimited possibilities.”

Going forward, technological progress will make possible a fully digitalized, automated, and programmable world of connected humans, machines, things, and places. All experiences and sensations will be transparent across the boundaries of physical and virtual realities. Each technology area has its own transformative potential– but it is the combinatorial effects of the technology developments that will unleash disruptive transformations.

Dr. Deepak Kumar Sahu, President & CEO, VARINDIA