Latin America. Extended Reality (XR), an umbrella term for Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR), will be the next-generation computing platform that aims to create virtual experiences indistinguishable from reality.
5G Americas, the voice of 4G 5G and LTE across the Americas, announced the release of its latest white paper on XR and wireless cellular networks called "Extended Reality and 3GPP Evolution."
Chris Pearson, President of 5G Americas, said, "XR will have a huge impact on the way people play, work, learn and connect. Their use cases have a broad impact on businesses, institutions, education, first aid and manufacturing."
There are numerous XR experiences with applications in a variety of scenarios. Additional VR applications may include online gaming, virtual participation in events, and educational experiences, while mobile AR use cases may include video gaming, mission-critical services, online shopping, multi-stakeholder spatial audio calls and conferences, and digital co-design.
5G New Radio (NR) developed by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is designed to support emerging XR use cases that demand rigorous key performance indicators. Specifically, low latency, high reliability, lower power consumption, and high capacity are key requirements for XR success. Such demands can include quasi-periodic traffic in large portions, irregular intervals and variable size, as well as high data rates, including uplink (UL) for AR services, simultaneous transmission of 3D video stream, and control data over the same end-to-end connection.
While 5G benefits XR, new use cases will demand greater end-to-end optimizations and potential enhancements for 5G networks, which continue to evolve with each new 3GPP specification release. The Rel-15 and Rel-16 offer a worthy base for XR, but were not specifically designed or optimized to support XR. The potential enhancements contained in the Rel-17 and Rel-18 are anticipated to optimize support for XR and include XR sensitivity, power optimizations, and capacity improvements.
The paper "Extended Reality and 3GPP Evolution" explores the following key themes:
Evolution of XR
Key XR Enablers and Use Cases
VR Use Cases
AR Use Cases
XR Service Features and Delivery Requirements
XR Key Enablers
XR in 3GPP standards
To learn about the 5G Americas report, click here.
