342 research outputs found
Long-term drivers of broadband traffic in next-generation networks
This paper is concerned with long-term (20+ years) forecasting of broadband traffic in next-generation networks. Such long-term approach requires going beyond extrapolations of past traffic data while facing high uncertainty in predicting the future developments and facing the fact that, in 20 years, the current network technologies and architectures will be obsolete. Thus, "order of magnitude" upper bounds of upstream and downstream traffic are deemed to be good enough to facilitate such long-term forecasting. These bounds can be obtained by evaluating the limits of human sighting and assuming that these limits will be achieved by future services or, alternatively, by considering the contents transferred by bandwidth-demanding applications such as those using embedded interactive 3D video streaming. The traffic upper bounds are a good indication of the peak values and, subsequently, also of the future network capacity demands. Furthermore, the main drivers of traffic growth including multimedia as well as non-multimedia applications are identified. New disruptive applications and services are explored that can make good use of the large bandwidth provided by next-generation networks. The results can be used to identify monetization opportunities of future services and to map potential revenues for network operators
WiserVR: Semantic Communication Enabled Wireless Virtual Reality Delivery
Virtual reality (VR) over wireless is expected to be one of the killer
applications in next-generation communication networks. Nevertheless, the huge
data volume along with stringent requirements on latency and reliability under
limited bandwidth resources makes untethered wireless VR delivery increasingly
challenging. Such bottlenecks, therefore, motivate this work to seek the
potential of using semantic communication, a new paradigm that promises to
significantly ease the resource pressure, for efficient VR delivery. To this
end, we propose a novel framework, namely WIreless SEmantic deliveRy for VR
(WiserVR), for delivering consecutive 360{\deg} video frames to VR users.
Specifically, deep learning-based multiple modules are well-devised for the
transceiver in WiserVR to realize high-performance feature extraction and
semantic recovery. Among them, we dedicatedly develop a concept of semantic
location graph and leverage the joint-semantic-channel-coding method with
knowledge sharing to not only substantially reduce communication latency, but
also to guarantee adequate transmission reliability and resilience under
various channel states. Moreover, implementation of WiserVR is presented,
followed by corresponding initial simulations for performance evaluation
compared with benchmarks. Finally, we discuss several open issues and offer
feasible solutions to unlock the full potential of WiserVR.Comment: This article has been submitted to IEEE Wireless Communications
Magazine (after major revisions) for possible publicatio
Towards Tactile Internet in Beyond 5G Era: Recent Advances, Current Issues and Future Directions
Tactile Internet (TI) is envisioned to create a paradigm shift from the content-oriented
communications to steer/control-based communications by enabling real-time transmission of haptic information (i.e., touch, actuation, motion, vibration, surface texture) over Internet in addition to the conventional audiovisual and data traffics. This emerging TI technology, also considered as the next evolution phase of Internet of Things (IoT), is expected to create numerous opportunities for technology markets in a wide variety of applications ranging from teleoperation systems and Augmented/Virtual Reality (AR/VR) to automotive safety and eHealthcare towards addressing the complex problems of human society. However, the realization of TI over wireless media in the upcoming Fifth Generation (5G) and beyond networks creates various non-conventional communication challenges and stringent requirements
in terms of ultra-low latency, ultra-high reliability, high data-rate connectivity, resource allocation, multiple access and quality-latency-rate tradeoff. To this end, this paper aims to provide a holistic view on wireless TI along with a thorough review of the existing state-of-the-art, to identify and analyze the involved technical issues, to highlight potential solutions and to propose future research directions. First, starting with the vision of TI and recent advances and a review of related survey/overview articles, we present a generalized framework for wireless TI in the Beyond 5G Era including a TI architecture, the main technical requirements, the key application areas and potential enabling technologies. Subsequently, we provide a comprehensive review of the existing TI works by broadly categorizing them into three main paradigms; namely, haptic communications, wireless AR/VR, and autonomous, intelligent and cooperative mobility systems. Next, potential enabling technologies across physical/Medium Access Control (MAC) and network layers are identified and discussed in detail. Also, security and privacy issues of TI applications are discussed
along with some promising enablers. Finally, we present some open research challenges and recommend promising future research directions
Performance Analysis of Hybrid UAV Networks for Probabilistic Content Caching
Caching content in small-cell networks can reduce the traffic congestion in backhaul. In this paper, we develop a hybrid caching network comprising of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and ground small-cell base stations (SBSs), where UAVs are preferred because of their flexibility and elevated platform for line-of-sight. First, we derive the association probability for the ground user affiliated with a UAV and ground SBS. Then, we derive the successful content delivery probability by considering
both the inter-cell and intra-cell interference. We also analyze the energy efficiency of the hybrid network and compare it with the separate UAV and ground networks. We further propose the caching scheme to improve the successful content delivery by managing the content popularity, where the part of the caching capacity in each UAV and ground SBS is reserved to store the most popular content (MPC), while the remaining stores less
popular contents. Numerical results unveil that the proposed caching scheme has an improvement of 26.6% in content delivery performance over the MPC caching which overlooks the impact of content diversity during caching
Performance analysis of hybrid UAV networks for probabilistic content caching
Caching content in small-cell networks can reduce the traffic congestion in backhaul. In this article, we develop a hybrid caching network comprising of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and ground small-cell base stations (SBSs), where UAVs are preferred because of their flexibility and elevated platform for line of sight. First, we derive the association probability for the ground user affiliated with a UAV and ground SBS. Then, we derive the successful content delivery probability by considering both the intercell and intracell interference. We also analyze the energy efficiency of the hybrid network and compare it with the separate UAV and ground networks. We further propose the caching scheme to improve the successful content delivery by managing the content popularity, where the part of the caching capacity in each UAV and ground SBS is reserved to store the most popular content (MPC), while the remaining stores less popular contents. Numerical results unveil that the proposed caching scheme has an improvement of 26.6% in content delivery performance over the MPC caching, which overlooks the impact of content diversity during caching
Sixth Generation (6G)Wireless Networks: Vision, Research Activities, Challenges and Potential Solutions
The standardization activities of the fifth generation communications are clearly over
and deployment has commenced globally. To sustain the competitive edge of wireless networks,
industrial and academia synergy have begun to conceptualize the next generation of wireless
communication systems (namely, sixth generation, (6G)) aimed at laying the foundation for the
stratification of the communication needs of the 2030s. In support of this vision, this study highlights
the most promising lines of research from the recent literature in common directions for the
6G project. Its core contribution involves exploring the critical issues and key potential features of
6G communications, including: (i) vision and key features; (ii) challenges and potential solutions;
and (iii) research activities. These controversial research topics were profoundly examined in relation
to the motivation of their various sub-domains to achieve a precise, concrete, and concise conclusion.
Thus, this article will contribute significantly to opening new horizons for future research direction
Survey on 6G Frontiers: Trends, Applications, Requirements, Technologies and Future Research
Emerging applications such as Internet of Everything, Holographic Telepresence, collaborative robots, and space and deep-sea tourism are already highlighting the limitations of existing fifth-generation (5G) mobile networks. These limitations are in terms of data-rate, latency, reliability, availability, processing, connection density and global coverage, spanning over ground, underwater and space. The sixth-generation (6G) of mobile networks are expected to burgeon in the coming decade to address these limitations. The development of 6G vision, applications, technologies and standards has already become a popular research theme in academia and the industry. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive survey of the current developments towards 6G. We highlight the societal and technological trends that initiate the drive towards 6G. Emerging applications to realize the demands raised by 6G driving trends are discussed subsequently. We also elaborate the requirements that are necessary to realize the 6G applications. Then we present the key enabling technologies in detail. We also outline current research projects and activities including standardization efforts towards the development of 6G. Finally, we summarize lessons learned from state-of-the-art research and discuss technical challenges that would shed a new light on future research directions towards 6G
Metaverse for Wireless Systems: Architecture, Advances, Standardization, and Open Challenges
The growing landscape of emerging wireless applications is a key driver
toward the development of novel wireless system designs. Such a design can be
based on the metaverse that uses a virtual model of the physical world systems
along with other schemes/technologies (e.g., optimization theory, machine
learning, and blockchain). A metaverse using a virtual model performs proactive
intelligent analytics prior to a user request for efficient management of the
wireless system resources. Additionally, a metaverse will enable
self-sustainability to operate wireless systems with the least possible
intervention from network operators. Although the metaverse can offer many
benefits, it faces some challenges as well. Therefore, in this tutorial, we
discuss the role of a metaverse in enabling wireless applications. We present
an overview, key enablers, design aspects (i.e., metaverse for wireless and
wireless for metaverse), and a novel high-level architecture of metaverse-based
wireless systems. We discuss metaverse management, reliability, and security of
the metaverse-based system. Furthermore, we discuss recent advances and
standardization of metaverse-enabled wireless system. Finally, we outline open
challenges and present possible solutions
A Survey on Energy Consumption and Environmental Impact of Video Streaming
Climate change challenges require a notable decrease in worldwide greenhouse
gas (GHG) emissions across technology sectors. Digital technologies, especially
video streaming, accounting for most Internet traffic, make no exception. Video
streaming demand increases with remote working, multimedia communication
services (e.g., WhatsApp, Skype), video streaming content (e.g., YouTube,
Netflix), video resolution (4K/8K, 50 fps/60 fps), and multi-view video, making
energy consumption and environmental footprint critical. This survey
contributes to a better understanding of sustainable and efficient video
streaming technologies by providing insights into the state-of-the-art and
potential future directions for researchers, developers, and engineers, service
providers, hosting platforms, and consumers. We widen this survey's focus on
content provisioning and content consumption based on the observation that
continuously active network equipment underneath video streaming consumes
substantial energy independent of the transmitted data type. We propose a
taxonomy of factors that affect the energy consumption in video streaming, such
as encoding schemes, resource requirements, storage, content retrieval,
decoding, and display. We identify notable weaknesses in video streaming that
require further research for improved energy efficiency: (1) fixed bitrate
ladders in HTTP live streaming; (2) inefficient hardware utilization of
existing video players; (3) lack of comprehensive open energy measurement
dataset covering various device types and coding parameters for reproducible
research
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