A Survey on Mobile Augmented Reality With 5G Mobile Edge Computing: Architectures, Applications, and Technical Aspects

TLDR

Augmented Reality blends virtual content with the real world, and the rise of powerful, affordable mobile devices and 5G‑enabled edge computing has made mobile AR increasingly popular by enabling low‑latency, high‑bandwidth experiences. This survey examines the current state and future prospects of mobile AR in the context of 5G and multi‑access edge computing. It analyzes MAR system architectures—cloud, edge, localized, and hybrid—alongside key application domains, technical requirements, and limitations, highlighting how 5G and edge computing support communication, mobility, energy, offloading, security, and privacy.

Abstract

The Augmented Reality (AR) technology enhances the human perception of the world by combining the real environment with the virtual space. With the explosive growth of powerful, less expensive mobile devices, and the emergence of sophisticated communication infrastructure, Mobile Augmented Reality (MAR) applications are gaining increased popularity. MAR allows users to run AR applications on mobile devices with greater mobility and at a lower cost. The emerging 5G communication technologies act as critical enablers for future MAR applications to achieve ultra-low latency and extremely high data rates while Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) brings enhanced computational power closer to the users to complement MAR. This paper extensively discusses the landscape of MAR through the past and its future prospects with respect to the 5G systems and complementary technology MEC. The paper especially provides an informative analysis of the network formation of current and future MAR systems in terms of cloud, edge, localized, and hybrid architectural options. The paper discusses key application areas for MAR and their future with the advent of 5G technologies. The paper also discusses the requirements and limitations of MAR technical aspects such as communication, mobility management, energy management, service offloading and migration, security, and privacy and analyzes the role of 5G technologies.