How will AR and VR transform 5G?

Augmented Reality technology will push the boundaries of connectivity and drive innovation in a 5G world.

Let’s take a glimpse into the future. You’re in your car on your way to a meeting. The car is equipped with an advanced driver assistance system (ADAS). There’s a turn up ahead, but you’re in an unfamiliar neighborhood and the street signs aren’t easy to read.

You aren’t sure if you’re supposed to turn off this main road at this intersection or the one just past it. Fortunately, the ADAS is a step ahead of you: the street information is superimposed into your visual field as you approach the turn. It changes the picture you see as you approach the decision point, clearly showing your navigational path.

Now that you made the turn off the main street and are looking for the building number of your destination, the building information appears in your visual field, even though the actual building number is partially obscured by a tree. The system finds an available parking space nearest to the door you need to enter and navigates you directly to it. You arrive at your meeting on time, having avoided the stress of making a wrong turn, or having to find space in a crowded parking lot.

Augmenting our reality

While the activity this system facilitates is mundane, I’d argue the technology – the augmentation and virtualization of our reality – is exciting. These evolutions have been envisioned in the science fiction realm for more than a quarter century already. William Gibson’s descriptions of “cyberspace” in his 1984 novel Neuromancer are among the earliest known popular references to these virtual worlds. Michael Crichton’s 1994 novel Disclosure (and the film of the same name, released later that year) contains a scene where the main character searches through a secure computer file system via virtual reality (VR) glasses. Long a staple of sci-fi films, VR technology plays a central role in Tron (1989), The Matrix (1999) and several other films. Now in 2019, virtual and augmented reality technology is finally approaching widespread use.

Yet as immersive and captivating as VR is, there are likely to be far more real-world applications for a more “mobile” augmented reality (AR) technology. The fully immersive VR experience is – at least for now – best when confined to a specific space, like a laboratory, classroom or gaming room; that is, VR operates in a “closed world”. On the other hand, AR can begin to more seamlessly integrate with our daily life – the “open world” – because it combines important bits of supplemental visual information with our perception of the physical world around us.

Connectivity is the defining, and sometimes limiting, factor of this augmented reality. Augmenting our reality requires mobility because we are constantly on the go. Connectivity is one of the main reasons why this technology that’s been envisioned for more than 30 years hasn’t yet made it into mainstream use. There’s simply too much data to be encoded, transported and delivered to our devices for existing network technology to handle it at scale. This is why we’re going to need 5G – and future wireless networks – to make AR (and any kind of mobile VR) a practical reality.

How will AR and VR transform 5G?

Some people might ask the question “How will 5G transform AR and VR?” To us at InterDigital, the more interesting angle is to look at its inverse: How will AR and VR transform 5G? We’ll return to our ADAS example to illustrate. But first, a quick look back to AR in 4G.

The most well-known AR applications thus far have been games: especially the wildly popular Pokémon Go and the recent Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. These have been possible in a 4G network environment because – as exciting and compelling as the games are – the data delivered through the game is relatively compact. There are a fixed (and relatively static) number of game scenarios and challenges. The game itself can work within the constraints of 4G in large part because there isn’t much data to deliver, and a lot of the intensive computing can be done in the cloud. Users of these games can tolerate a fair amount of latency, and the user is generally only traveling along at walking speed. Catching a Pokémon or fending off a dementor attack is fun in part because you’re on foot when you do it.

However, most of the background technology will have to change when AR applications get to the level of future ADAS systems. When a car is traveling along at freeway speeds, an ADAS system will need to be capable both of serving up relevant information like street signs, building numbers, and intersection images, which are all relatively static, as well as more dynamic data, like notifications about traffic, weather and road conditions, and other travel warnings.

The ADAS of the future will also need to deliver that information from a variety of viewing angles in any given location where the car is located. Depending on how that application is coded, this kind of ADAS will require a huge amount of computing power and bandwidth. Some of the computing will be able to be done onboard the vehicle, but much of it will need to be done at the network edge as well, where computing horsepower and energy are more plentiful. Besides, it makes more sense for street maps and visual information to be stored close to the actual device where it will be used. If a car is driving in Los Angeles, there’s no need (and probably insufficient storage anyway) for the Chicago, New York and Seattle maps to be onboard that car. The application data is thus not going to be replicated in every car in exactly the same way.

From top to bottom, the areas 5G will improve include broadband, mobile networks and IoT.

(Image credit: InterDigital)

To understand the bandwidth needs for this future, consider the bandwidth needs for just this system alone. To do so, we must multiply the amount of ADAS computing power by the many thousands of cars in each given city. Not only do we need a bigger pipe for all of that data, we need edge servers to deliver the right data with the lowest possible latency (much more critical in a fast-moving vehicle), and those networks need software-defined slices that provision all of these resources for this particular type of application. A 5G ecosystem is better suited to meet these high volume, low latency network needs. 4G – designed primarily for a mobile voice, data and video user – just isn’t built that way.

The major difference of 5G

A major part of the reason why 5G architecture is so fundamentally different from its predecessors is because of the vast array of new use cases that are coming into focus. Augmented reality is just one of them.

Not all of the AR applications we’ll see in the future will be as complex as the ADAS example I described above. Other applications, like simple search queries, will use the same infrastructure but will demand fewer resources from it. With AR, search capabilities will become a greater enhancement to our lives. We will be able to compare bargains using AR-driven search at the grocery store or even search statistics about an opposing team in the same visual field in which we watch a football game.  AR will become a much more pervasive technology, in the way mobile phones and text messages have become a facet of everyday life for so many of us.

AR technology, enabled by 5G, will by no means be confined to the realm of the automobile or search. Other application domains will include augmented reality tele-medicine, “augmented shopping” (including the virtual fitting of clothing and accessories), augmented reality repair or installation of equipment, augmented reality tourism and travel guides, and many more.

Someday this technology will become so commonplace that we’ll have trouble remembering life before it. And 5G will be the connectivity technology that made that ubiquity possible.

Source: https://www.5gradar.com/features/how-will-ar-and-vr-transform-5g-henry-tirri-cto-at-interdigital
25 09 19

Key Drivers and Research Challenges for 6G Ubiquitous Wireless Intelligence

The University of Oulu in Finland has published the world’s first white paper on 6G wireless technology. The white paper is titled ‘Key Drivers and Research Challenges for 6G Ubiquitous Wireless Intelligence’ and is based on information gathered at a summit of experts in the emerging 6G wireless capability sector held in Levi, Finnish Lapland, in March this year. It focuses on the key drivers and research priorities for the development of 6G technology, which the experts estimated would result in ‘ubiquitous wireless intelligence’ by 2030.

The paper consits of seven themes:

• Social and business drivers of 6G wireless innovation, including adherence to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and the evolving needs of the data market: the paper notes that while the technical success of 5G has relied on new developments in many areas and will deliver a much wider range of data rates to a much broader variety of devices and users. 6G will require a substantially more holistic approach to identify future communication needs, embracing a much wider community to shape the requirements of 6G.
• 6G use cases and new devices – the paper predicts a shift in user devices from smartphones toward wearable devices with virtual, augmented or mixed reality capability, along with the emergence of other innovations in technological engagement such as telepresence, mobile robots and autonomous vehicles; and identifies these as factors to be considered when constructing 6G-enabled networks;
• Key performance indicators and projected spectrum capability for 6G wireless connectivity, which the experts say should aim to transmit at rates of up to 1Tbps per user;
• Progress and challenges of the necessary radio hardware – communications applications and architecture must merge in order to offer the spectrum needed to achieve the requisite speeds for 6G connectivity;
• Wireless systems and the physical layer of development – the paper highlights issues of increased energy consumption and data processing, saying: ‘Meeting all the challenging requirements identified requires a hyper-flexible network with configurable radios. AI and machine learning will be used in concert with radio sensing and positioning to learn about the static and dynamic components of the radio environment’;
• 6G wireless networking, including secure privacy protection protocols and the growing role of Artificial Intelligence and blockchain capability; and
• New service enablers – the paper highlights the growth of edge and cloud computing, machine learning and Artificial Intelligence and highlights the importance of shoring up privacy and trust in the network.

As 5G research is maturing and continues to support global standardization, we must start to start discussing what 6G can become and how to get there. Company representatives, researchers, decision-makers and other builders and members of smart society are invited to join this effort.

Click here to download the 6G White Paper on everything RF or  White paper 6G

Source: https://www.everythingrf.com/news/details/8958-Read-the-First-Official-White-Paper-on-6G-Technology
25 09 19

Why 5G will Accelerate the Growth of Micro Data Centres

5G is a hot discussion topic that is seeing increasing traction. And no wonder. With high-speed data performance touted at 1Gbps and faster, support for extreme deployment densities and wired network-like latency, it is seen as the linchpin for a new generation of revolutionary technologies such as robotics, augmented reality on mobile devices, and autonomous vehicles.

5G is Coming

What is 5G exactly? By making better use of the radio spectrum and relying on much higher frequencies, the fifth generation of mobile connectivity promises significantly faster upload and download speeds than the fastest 4G LTE deployment today.

Crucially, 5G is designed to support up to a million devices per square kilometre, 10 times that of 4G’s 100,000 devices. This means that 5G will have no problem supporting the largest sporting events, supporting the projected 75 billion IoT devices in 2025, or operating at full tilt in the densest cities in the world.

On the other hand, some benefits of 5G such as its low latency performance can be negated with inadequate backhaul or slow networks to backend servers. If you think in terms of the speed of light, the maximum distance to meet the 1ms latency specification of 5G translates to servers located not further than 160km away under perfect conditions.

Of course, the reality of routing networks means that this distance is often much shorter. Indeed, a recent 5G test in Chicago downloading a 4K movie over both 4G and 5G saw the latter only being slightly faster due to the distance of the source server. This is the primary reason why maximizing the potential of 5G will require the deployment of micro data centres deployed at the edge.

The Role of Micro Data Centres

But what are micro data centres? They are small data centres designed to meet today’s diverse and fluid IT requirements. They typically consist of just one to two server racks and could be as compact as a 6U rack that hung on the wall or located at the corner of the room.

Computing and storage are not compromised in a micro data centre – they pack a massive amount of each with the use of dense, converged infrastructure. One class of solutions that is increasingly popular for micro data centres would undoubtedly be “Data Centre in a Box” offerings such as those from APC by Schneider Electric.

In the context of 5G, micro data centres serve an important role by caching frequently accessed data as near to the 5G radio access network as possible. By building local clusters within a projected radius for 1ms latency, it becomes possible to deliver the full benefits of 5G networks. To support 5G globally, potentially millions of micro data centres might need to be deployed.

As you might expect, there has been a lively discussion over the years at Schneider Electric and the data centre industry in general on the theme of energy efficiency for large data centres. This topic is just as pertinent in a world where micro data centres are more prevalent than ever. Think about it: A 10KW reduction in energy use across 2,000 micro data centres adds up quickly to 20MW. That’s roughly US$4 million per year, which is not an inconsequential sum.

For now, our strategy is to help companies from cable TV service providers to IT firms and Internet giants to add value in the 5G ecosystem. We are focused on integrating the more efficient power hardware, safest enclosures, latest battery technology, and the most innovative cloud-based management systems. May the best player win!

Source: https://nxtmag.tech/2019/09/25/5g-accelerate-growth-micro-data-centres/
25 09 19

5G: A Key Requirement for Autonomous Driving—Really?

With the first rollouts taking place around the world, many say the availability of 5G—along highways and in cities or ideally nationwide—is a precondition for self-driving cars. But is this really true?

Automotive examples tend to be front and center in global media coverage of planned 5G use cases, often with the claim that any country without 5G will fall behind when it comes to autonomous driving. But is mobile connectivity, in particular based on 5G, really required for autonomous driving, or will it simply play a supporting role? Let’s take a look at some specific use cases and the factors that could make them a reality.

Interacting with the Environment

As the automotive industry moves toward fully autonomous driving, the end goal is the literal meaning of the phrase: a car that can operate safely and independently of any human control. Such a vehicle must be able to detect any situation relevant to its driving, interpret that situation and any potential challenges, and then make a decision and take the most appropriate action. On first look, it seems clear that sending a car outside information such as road conditions in the near distance will enable it to surpass the capabilities of a human driver, who might not have such information. This could offer numerous benefits, such as preventing accidents, avoiding traffic jams, and creating safer and more efficient driving. However, when making critical decisions, an autonomous car should not be dependent on a component such as a mobile network, which is never 100 percent reliable.

Three categories of technologies are being discussed for cars to effectively interact with the surrounding environment (see figure 1):

Environment information capturing. Vehicles must be aware of their surroundings. They must use built-in cameras and sensors, such as radio detection and ranging (RADAR) and light detection and ranging (LIDAR) technology, which enable them to sense and interact with the world around them and build on the information available from maps and GPS. For example, to enable self-driving capabilities, Tesla equips each vehicle with eight cameras that provide 360-degree visibility and 12 ultrasonic sensors that detect objects. This number is likely to increase in the future.

Direct vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication. Vehicles must communicate with each other and with roadside infrastructure. Despite all the latest developments, sensors are not perfect. Processing the wealth of information required for safe driving is complex, and ultimately, communication among human drivers (including non-verbal communications, such as hand signaling) must be fully mirrored in the future. Short-distance direct V2X communication is needed to communicate with other vehicles and nearby objects, including pedestrians and traffic lights—not only mirroring human activities but also going beyond what a driver can do.

Two V2X communication approaches are being pursued, with the 5.9 GHz spectrum being globally dedicated to this task:

• Dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) in the United States and Intelligent Transport System G5 (ITS-G5) in Europe are based on Wi-Fi protocol 802.11p.
• Cellular V2X technology (C-V2X) is a protocol that allows direct communication (not using mobile infrastructure). For now, it is based on LTE, but in the near future, it will be based on 5G standards.

Carrier-based V2X communication. Vehicles may also communicate over larger distances to send and receive more information. Even though short-range communication with connected infrastructure, such as beacons, could be used to transmit information to the car, some communication is likely to rely on mobile network infrastructure, also called C-V2X, but this time using a cellular network. Centrally collecting data from moving cars and providing aggregated information, including real-time maps, traffic data, road hazard warnings, and driving recommendations, will enhance cars’ safety levels and planning capabilities while also improving road usage efficiency through coordinated driving. In addition, vehicle-to-network (V2N) communication enables use cases that are not directly related to autonomous driving, including live function activation, preventive maintenance, and access to multimedia entertainment—all of which demand substantial bandwidth. However, capturing the benefits of carrier-based C-V2X will require a dense grid of mobile base stations.

Most original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are already equipping their cars with a multitude of sensors to make them somewhat autonomous, including RADAR, LIDAR, and cameras. However, it’s not enough to enable safe driving at high or full automation (see figure 2). These technologies will need to be enhanced to achieve safety levels that approach or exceed those associated with human driving, and that is where communication comes into play.

Enabling Short-Range Communication

Safety-enhancing short-distance V2X communication is not yet broadly available in today’s communication standards or in vehicle installations. Political decision-makers are pushing an array of standards, including DSRC in the United States, ITS-G5 in Europe, and C-V2X in China. US automakers plan to implement DSRC in all new cars beginning in 2020, and China is pushing to establish 5G-based C-V2X. Europe recently fell short of endorsing ITS-G5 and is opting for a more technology-neutral approach, with all the consequences the lack of a standard is likely to entail.

To establish effective and reliable short-range communication among cars, two conditions must be in place regardless of which technology is used—and this is what car manufacturers, standard-setting bodies, and equipment manufacturers should focus on:

A common standard for direct vehicle-to-vehicle communication is needed—at least within major geographies. Standard-setting bodies and some large automakers, including Toyota, Renault, and Volkswagen, favor the standards of DSRC (in the United States) and ITS-G5 (in Europe) because of their technological maturity and lower manufacturing costs. Both standards are based on IEEE 802.11p and use similar hardware. These standards have evolved over the past 20 years and have been designed for the medium-range distance (300 meters to 1 kilometer), enabling communication among fast-moving objects and allowing for data rates of up to 25Mbps at minimal latencies. The C-V2X technology, which is based on mobile standards such as LTE today and 5G in the future, is much younger, and full standards and commercial deployment are not expected until 2020–2021. The most noticeable supporter for the new technology is the 5G Automotive Association, which is backed by several prominent car manufacturers, including BMW and Daimler, as well as equipment manufacturers such as Ericsson, Nokia, and Huawei; chip manufacturers such as Qualcomm; and major telecommunication operators such as Deutsche Telekom. Their reasons range from improved reliability, extended range (about twice as far), and cost efficiency, given the possibility to integrate C-V2X into the mobile communication modems already deployed in cars. At this point, it is not clear which standard will prevail. After a major lobbying battle, European policy makers have loosened their backing for ITS-G5 to avoid shutting out 5G-based C-V2X technologies and opening the door for forward-looking developments in European markets. However, the lack of an agreed-upon standard is hampering the second condition for establishing short-range communication among vehicles.

A critical mass of cars must be equipped with compatible short-range communication technologies to achieve the required network effects. Automotive OEMs will need to equip vehicles with these communication capabilities as soon as possible and configure them to send messages, such as the intention to change lanes, even though there is no one to receive the messages yet. Only by doing so can a critical mass be achieved to enable tomorrow’s autonomous vehicles to react to these messages—a classic network problem. The United States and China are establishing the required regulations for a standard communication technology, but Europe is still undecided about which, if any, technology to favor. Agreeing on a common standard would clearly benefit Europe. As time progresses, the time lag of standardization for C-V2X will become less of a problem, and coordinated adoption will quickly drive down unit costs for the associated chipsets for C-V2X once they are available. However, any extra cost from adding components to the car’s bill of material with no immediate benefit is not a compelling case for the automotive industry, which is already undergoing massive change. Therefore, even agreeing on a common standard might not be enough, and the industry might have to agree—or governments might have to enforce—that all cars are to be equipped with short-range communication. Only in this way can the inherent network problem be overcome.

Establishing Long-Range Communication

Because network- and carrier-based long-range C-V2X communication will help improve the safety of autonomous cars—although not a precondition to their existence—C-V2X’s primary requirement is the presence of a broadly established mobile network with the necessary capabilities. Generally, it is assumed that the latest technology network (5G) will be required. However, is this truly the case? The question is what type of information enables those enhanced levels of safety through C-V2X communication?

Various types of information must be brought to and from the car via long-range communication:

• Non-time critical information into the car such as software and map updates (for example, coordinates of new construction sites) or from the car such as data captured by the car’s artificial intelligence (AI) unit (for example, improving the OEMs’ AI) or monitoring data, such as insurance information or the need for maintenance. Some of this information might be large, comparable to smartphone updates or even larger.
• Time-critical information into the car such as urgent traffic alerts, crucial map updates, positioning corrections, directions for coordinated driving, and security-relevant information or information from the car, such as moving-car data (for example, for coordinated driving) or alerts, such as map updates and critical sensor data. This is mostly short messages with low latency requirements.
• Communication and content such as video and audio streaming, web content, communication or messaging for entertainment, and information for work purposes—some of which require high bandwidth to function properly

Today’s LTE-based mobile networks could handle most of these use cases—assuming there is coverage in the areas where these cases are relevant and enough network capacity for the more bandwidth-hungry applications. Autonomous driving field tests, including on Germany’s highway A9, show that LTE networks—in combination with edge computing—can handle latency requirements of 15 milliseconds. Given that most time-critical applications had latency requirements of up to 100 milliseconds, this should be sufficient as a start to enable enhanced levels of safety.

Of course, 5G will have added benefits, especially additional network capacity, given the new frequency bands and higher spectral efficiency as well as ultra-low latency for short messages and the ability to more efficiently manage many connected objects, such as cars. However, beyond fulfilling the skyrocketing capacity needs for content, most of these benefits only come to fruition with a critical mass of autonomous cars, which is likely to be more than a decade away. Only then will coordinated driving become a reality, and it will require bidirectional ultra-low latency or massive car communication—mostly in areas with a high density of cars, such as highways and cities. The same is true for remote control and steering of driverless vehicles, which must overcome many other hurdles first, such as insurance and reliability, to become reality in broader environments. Consequently, the need for nationwide 5G coverage for the sake of autonomous driving is not foreseeable—although having it in the mix on highways and cities definitely helps.

5G’s Role in Enabling Autonomous Driving

So, is 5G truly required to enable autonomous driving? As discussed, in direct short-range V2X communication, 5G technology is a viable contender, and with China’s decision to back C-V2X and Europe’s openness, C-V2X might prevail even though alternatives do exist. In the short to mid-term, 5G in mobile networks does not appear to be essential to kick-start autonomous driving, contrary to many media assertions.

What’s more important is reliable mobile communication with extensive geographic—not just the population—coverage and sufficient capacity. The existing mobile networks—even if only based on 4G/LTE—can provide the basis for this if they are built out and if older technology is gradually replaced, re-farming the frequencies used by 3G and 2G. Clearly, 5G will supplement and enhance the networks, laying the path for the evolution of autonomous driving as other required technologies mature.

Much more essential for the rise of autonomous driving than a fast nationwide 5G rollout is that all stakeholders—automakers, chip and equipment manufacturers, industry bodies, regulators, and mobile operators—join forces to drive standards into the market. The automotive industry would be wise to learn an important lesson from the mobile industry: collaborating on standards is the primary driver for growth of network-based sectors in a fragmented, competitive landscape. The European success of the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a lighthouse example.

Source: https://www.atkearney.com/communications-media-technology/article/?/a/5g-a-key-requirement-for-autonomous-driving-really-
25 09 19