Extended Reality Over 5G—Standards Evolution

Abstract

High performance XR systems can offload intensive computation tasks such as graphic rendering to the edge server - enabling a richer experience while reducing the power consumption on the XR end-user device. This paper provides an overview of the requirements for such split-compute XR systems over 5G and the resulting traffic characteristics. The design of 5G system, from the very first release, provides support for such emerging use cases with low power requirement and traffic requirements of low latency, high bandwidth, and high reliability. As split XR systems scale in terms of the number of users, evolve to support more immersive experience with consumer-friendly device form-factors, and become a key enabler for metaverse experiences, 5G system will continue to evolve to meet the more demanding requirements as part of “5G-Advanced” phase of 5G standards development, starting with 3GPP Release 18. This paper provides an overview of the advances in 5G with 3GPP Release 18 across RAN and SA2 working groups to address the emerging XR requirements.