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Title: Can 5G mmWave Support Multi-user AR?
Augmented Reality (AR) has been widely hailed as a representative of ultra-high bandwidth and ultra-low latency apps that will be enabled by 5G networks. While single-user AR can perform AR tasks locally on the mobile device, multi-user AR apps, which allow multiple users to interact within the same physical space, critically rely on the cellular network to support user interactions. However, a recent study showed that multi-user AR apps can experience very high end-to-end latency when running over LTE, rendering user interaction practically infeasible. In this paper, we study whether 5G mmWave, which promises significant bandwidth and latency improvements over LTE, can support multi-user AR by conducting an in-depth measurement study of the same popular multi-user AR app over both LTE and 5G mmWave. Our measurement and analysis show that: (1) The E2E AR latency over LTE is significantly lower compared to the values reported in the previous study. However, it still remains too high for practical user interaction. (2) 5G mmWave brings no benefits to multi-user AR apps. (3) While 5G mmWave reduces the latency of the uplink visual data transmission, there are other components of the AR app that are independent of the network technology and account for a significant fraction of the E2E latency. (4) The app drains 66% more network energy, which translates to 28% higher total energy over 5G mmWave compared to over LTE.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2112778
NSF-PAR ID:
10342973
Author(s) / Creator(s):
Date Published:
Journal Name:
In: Hohlfeld, O., Moura, G., Pelsser, C. (eds) Passive and Active Measurement. PAM 2022. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13210
Page Range / eLocation ID:
180-196
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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