3GPP Rel-17 5G Media Streaming and 5G Broadcast powered by 5G-MAG Reference Tools

The expansion of connectivity has opened the door for new ways of creating, distributing and consuming multimedia content. According to the Ericsson Mobility Report [1], by 2028, 5G networks will carry 69 percent of the world's smartphone traffic, with the delivery of video expected to account for 80 percent of the mobile data traffic. Engaging in the development of global technologies, such as 5G, is an opportunity to shape their capabilities towards the creation of new services and applications. 5G Media Streaming is a set of specifications, functionalities and APIs for service providers to manage 5G System capabilities such as content provisioning. quality of service, metrics and consumption reporting, network assistance, dynamic network policies, among other functionalities. Furthermore, it also allows managing the different delivery mechanisms available in 5G, including unicast, multicast and broadcast, edge processing, etc.The 5G Media Action Group (5G-MAG) has undertaken the task to drive the implementation of 5G multimedia services and applications. This is done by implementing the open-source 5G-MAG Reference Tools, which also provide feedback to relevant standards developing organizations while strengthening collaboration between service providers, network operators, systems integrators, technology vendors, app developers and users.This paper presents an overview of the technologies and features currently being developed as part of the 5G-MAG Reference Tools and the first services and applications supported. This currently involves several building blocks for 5G Media Streaming, including baseline features such as content hosting and media session handling, and an end-to-end toolbox for LTE-based 5G Broadcast. This is now the framework for contributors to add more advanced functionalities as soon as more specifications, features and functionalities become available.