5G-MEDIA: Immersive Media and Virtual Reality

5G Context

Media-based applications are amongst the most demanding services in terms of bandwidth and latency to enable high audio-visual quality and interactivity. For example, tele-immersive (TI) applications enable the multi-party real-time interaction of users located in different parts of the globe through common virtual worlds. Priority challenges in immersive media range from Quality of Service (QoS) and Quality of Experience (QoE), to the availability and interaction between users for a smooth user experience. 

With 5G, the rendering service VNF (virtual network function) intelligently delivers only the sub-set of data that is actually needed for the viewing direction on the spectator's mobile device, thereby prioritising bandwidth resources and reducing latency. 

Another novel functionality is enabling instant replays for immersive media, where a cache VNF can be used, buffering traffic for specific durations with on-demand replay request.

5G-MEDIA Advances 

5G-MEDIA (Programmable edge-to-cloud virtualised fabric for the 5G media industry) has implemented an integrated 5G media platform that has been extensively tested against its three use cases, including tele-immersive applications. Key innovations for the media industry include:

•  A complete service development kit (SDK).
•  5G service catalogue with AAA mechanisms for media service management, accounting and billing. 
•  Multi-hierarchical cognitive network optimiser for continuous enhancements during and after service deployment. 
•  Enablement of traditional and serverless orchestration allowing event-driven orchestration of services at run time.

Demo on Immersive Media and Virtual Reality

5G-MEDIA has tested and validated its platform capabilities to flexibly develop, deploy and optimise media service applications.

Real-time interactive immersive media application with two players volumetrically reconstructed. Interaction between the players in a common virtual gaming environment through textured 3D shapes. 

Live spectating of each gaming session by remote third party users.

The 5G-MEDIA platform enables a flexible real-time adaptive streaming service, using serverless orchestration tor the on-demand deployment of transcoding services at the start of the gaming session or for the delivery of replay clips to spectators.

Testing efficiency of two scenarios: Optimised selection of the transcoding profile to meet Quality of Experience (QoE) satisfaction; optimised cost efficiency of each session with a view to maximising profits while keeping the same QoE levels. The second scenario demonstrated how the use of a finer-grained service opens up new opportunities for application-centric optimisation.

Keywords: Flexible real-time adaptive streaming service; Quality of Experience (QoE); Optimised cost efficiency.

In terms of ITU 5G functionalities, 5G-MEDIA has investigated: 

•  Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB).

It has also investigated: 

• Real-time 3D media adaptive streaming.
• Management of the VNFFG, QoS/QoE monitoring. 
• Rendering services accommodating various functionalities. 
• Real-time adaptive streaming.
• Cache services for instant replay.
• Edge computing, Serverless Computing.

Locations: Athens (Greece); Thessaloniki (Greece); Madrid (Spain); Rome (Italy). 

Showcase: Live demo at EuCNC 2019.

Partners involved: CERTH - Centre for Research and Technology Hellas; IBM, Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation S.A. (OTE), Singular Logic, Madrid University of Technology, Telefonica R&I, University College London

Other Partners: Engineering Ingegneria Informatica SpA (Coordinator), BitTubes GmBH, Interinnov SAS, IRT GmBH (Broadcast and multimedia institute), Nextworks srl, NETAS Telecommunications Inc., RTVE (Spanish Media service)

5G-MEDIA Website | @5GPPP5GMEDIA