5G Catalyzing Extended Realities

5G is the 5th generation mobile network making for the latest global standard after the 4G network. 5G brings a new type of network that connects virtually everything and everyone together which includes devices, machines, and objects. Safe to say that 5G is a unified, more capable air interface. 5G offers the potential for revolutionary applications extending far beyond smartphones and other mobile devices. A new range of 5G use cases and applications that converge connectivity, intelligent edge, AR/VR, and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies will benefit everyone, from industry to consumers to governments. Among them, 5G in Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) stands out as the most appealing ones.

The scope of AR/VR Market

The market size of AR/VR was valued at 14.84 billion in 2020 and has a projection of USD 454.73 billion by 2030, a growth rate of 40.7%. Statista projects that significant expenditures would be made on AR/VR technologies till 2024.

Projections stand at an allocation of $17.6 Billion in AR/VR gaming, and VR streaming; $4.1 Billion in industrial maintenance and training; and $2.7 billion in retail Showcasing. Virtual reality brings about a revolution in Gaming. It opens up whole new dimensions in this sphere. It allows players to be physically active while playing.

The add-on is that augmented reality in gaming can enhance the gaming experience immensely. It allows players to do things differently (i.e., for any given set of choices, you can go for the strategies most likely to minimize the risks), lets us play in a multi-dimensional space, and introduces virtual Characters in the game. While video gaming and entertainment will continue to drive this market, AR and VR will also see emerging practical applications with an increase in the adoption of AR/VR technologies in automotive, manufacturing, retail, and healthcare industry verticals.

Technological Requirements for 5G in AR/VR

High wireless capacity

AR and VR provide richer visual content which requires 6 DoF, 360° spherical content, higher resolutions and frame rates. Also, frequent up/downloads on wearables may be needed. All the above features need greater bandwidth, which 5G promises to deliver.

Low Latency

For streaming immersive content, low latency plays a key role in reducing discomfort in user experience. Both AR and VR require latency lower than 20ms for optimal performance. The average latency of a 5G network is around 10ms.

Uniformity of Experience

For optimal user experience and comfort, lags, stalls and stutters are all highly undesirable factors. AR and VR experiences should have:

1. Consistency in quality - Reduction of quality from fluctuating bitrates and disruptions from buffering are unacceptable.
2. Usage Anywhere: Ar and VR services should not be limited to certain areas. For a uniform experience, AR VR technologies should have usage anywhere, in cities, and rural areas providing dependable service even in Challenging environments.
3. Mobility: The ability to function in motion(without any lag) such as head movement, cars, etc, is essential for AR/VR applications to work effectively.

How Does 5G Affect AR/VR?

5G is the 5th generation of wireless technology. And with it comes higher bandwidth and higher network capacity (increase in the maximum amount of data that may be transferred between network locations over a link or network path), low latency (faster, more responsive connections), more stability and reliability of connections (less signal loss) and a more uniform user experience for everyone. Here’s how that affects VR and AR technology.

Streaming Immersive Video

1. There is a common misconception that 5G’s low latency will have an impact on streaming non-interactive 180 or 360 video content.
2. The reason latency hardly matters for non-interactive streaming video content is that head tracking on VR and AR headsets is not coupled to the streaming latency. In most incarnations of 180 and 360 immersive streaming technology, the visual adjustments from the movement of the user’s head are processed locally on the device at a high rate, rather than sending the motion to some remote server and waiting to receiving an updated frame which corrects for head motion.
3. The Higher bandwidth of 5G, however, will have an impact. This is due to the fact that 360 3D video or full volumetric video is highly bandwidth intensive.

WebXR Experiences

1. WebXR is the term that encapsulates both augmented reality and virtual reality, as well as whatever comes from the combination of the two technologies. As it is web-based, there are no apps or software involved, and you access the content directly from a web browser like Chrome.
2. WebXR, using WebXR Device API (Standards used to support 3D rendering, Hardware designed for supporting virtual worlds(VR), and the addition of graphical images to the real world (AR)) provides the functionality required to bring VR and AR to the web.
3. Since WebXR content isn’t pre-downloaded like an application is, these experiences have to be small in size. With higher Bandwidth, comes the possibility to create large and more detailed WebXR experiences. And switching from one WebXR experience to another becomes effortless.

AR/VR Gaming

1. The scenario of streaming high-end interactive AR and VR graphics on an inexpensive 5G VR headset, without any requirement of a high-end PC seems plausible.
2. Current non-VR games usually bottom out at about 50 milliseconds (ms) of latency between a controller input and the time the pixels actually update.
3. The latency requirement in VR games is commonly targeted at 20 ms; anything more than that causes the user to feel nauseous. However, in AR the requirement is even stricter as visual changes are not only triggered by the motion of the user but also by any change in the surrounding world. Some sources identify the limit for a perfect AR experience at 5 ms
4. To be nearly indistinguishable from reality a VR system should ideally have a delay of 15ms or even 7 ms between the time a player moves their head and the time the player sees a new, corrected view of the scene. Now 5G is promising an average latency of around 10ms.

Final Words:

With 5G comes lower overall latency, higher capacity and a more uniform experience (all critical factors for VR and AR applications) with a reduction in cost per bit.

Fully cloud-rendered interactive VR and AR gaming demands higher resolutions and lower latency, the impressive growth of immersive video will only become more substantial as AR and VR grow in market share, with next-generation content formats like 6DoF video stressing networks even more with individual data consumption in the range of 200 Mbps to 1 Gbps.

In a way, the VR and AR industry is yearning for the capabilities 5G promises and this is a profound change in the way cellular networks have traditionally been developed. Moreover, new use cases for AR and VR will emerge as the capabilities of 5G networks actualize. AR and VR have the capacity to revolutionize industries, and 5G will play a crucial role in that transformation.