The evolution of delivering immersive media over 5G/Cloud

Aspects of the 5G ecosystem, now being deployed in 3GPP releases 17/18/19, include split processing and edge computing resources. These can be enlisted to offload manipulation and rendering of immersive datasets, thereby reducing the burden on the mobile device. Instead, the mobile device receives only the rendered video, for one or both eyes, ready-made for display by the headset. - Key design criteria for 5G connectivity to near-edge compute resources have been established based, in large part, on augmented and mixed reality use cases that rely on network slicing and quality of service (QoS) management, impose limits on bidirectional communication latencies, and establish minimum requirements for the compute resources themselves. Additionally, 5G system is becoming "XR aware" with a specific set of features for XR offloading. These features provide not only the proper network requirements, but also additional intelligence to consider device power and capacity considerations critical to scaling the deployment of XR services. - This paper describes the evolution of XR applications from merely delivering media over 5G to how to best utilize 5G cloud/edge infrastructure to process and distribute advanced immersive experiences and content to lightweight, wireless, head-mounted displays. Critical use cases impose clear network requirements and how those are met in 5G is examined. Lastly, the shape of potential relationships within the stakeholder ecosystem are presented, all with the goal of guiding content providers (developers and service providers) through the paradigm shift from device-centric to network-centric XR services.