Standard Evolution of 5G-Advanced and Future Mobile Network for Extended Reality and Metaverse
Zhenglei Huang, Chunshan Xiong, Hui Ni, Dan Wang, Tao Yuan, Tao Sun
Abstract
eXtend Reality (XR) and Metaverse are important service scenarios to be supported by 5G-Advanced (5G-A) and future mobile networks. However, there are still many challenges and gaps for 5G-A to guarantee the immersive experience of XR and Metaverse. This article analyzes the challenges to support XR in 5G-A, e.g., lossless audio compression transmission, full-view high-resolution video transmission, and synchronization between multi-modal transmission. Then an overall system architecture of 5G-A for enabling XR is proposed with the concept of application-network coordination. And the latest advances of 3GPP standard on network architecture enhancements for XR are overviewed, including network-assistant service optimization, Quality of Service (QoS) enhancements, and power saving optimization. Finally, the future standard and research directions for Metaverse are analyzed, including integrated architecture with communication-sensing-computing, immersive experience enhancements for new media types, intelligent network, security and privacy aspects.