This paper addresses a summary of completed Rel-18 technologies for media and XR related technologies and provides an overview on what is happening and expected in Rel-19, and possibly even beyond in the 6G era.

Abstract

5G-based Media Distribution, developed by 3GPP, is getting ubiquitous, global and across different verticals. 3GPP SA4, the 3GPP working group for media technologies, is the powerhouse for developing the specifications relevant for content delivery, compression, quality-of-experience, codecs and formats. With the entrance into 5G advanced as of Release-18, 3GPP has addressed the needs for traditional content distribution, for emerging XR services, the integration of AI/ML into media workflows and the support for verticals for their media needs. 

This paper addresses a summary of completed Rel-18 technologies for media and XR related technologies and provides an overview on what is happening and expected in Rel-19, and possibly even beyond in the 6G era. For XR, normative specifications have been developed to address media capabilities for AR glasses including XR runtime, rendering capabilities, new formats, and codecs for audiovisual experiences. The integration into 5G delivery is of utmost importance to support functionalities including split rendering and distributed compute. Those technologies require smart distribution of compute resources across handheld devices, glasses or other HMDs (Head Mounted Displays), and network elements. Requirements and technologies such as low latency encoding and delivery, support for QoS (Quality of Service) and appropriate APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) open a platform for new Metaverse experiences. 3GPP SA4 also has dealt with upgrading functionalities for conversational experiences, including a new immersive voice and audio services (IVAS) codec, integration of webRTC into 3GPP, as well as using Avatars to augment traditional IMS-based calls. This paper provides a detailed overview of 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) Release-18 functionalities as well as an overview on reference implementations and prototypes that are developed in collaboration with 5G-MAG. Finally, the paper will provide an outlook to expected work in the next Releases, with a media vision into 6G.

Introduction

5G and its latest evolution called 5G-Advanced are seen as real game changers for the media industry, with the promises to provide faster, more reliable, and more responsive connectivity. This will enable the delivery of content more quickly and efficiently, which is particularly important in today’s fast-paced media landscape. Higher bandwidth, ultralow latency and more reliable network configurations are at the core of the evolutions for which the benefits are two-fold: the optimization of the QoE for audiovisual services and the introduction of disruptive experiences such as eXtended Reality (XR).

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