Toward immersive communications in 6G

Abstract

The sixth generation (6G) networks are expected to enable immersive communications and bridge the physical and the virtual worlds. Integrating extended reality, holography, and haptics, immersive communications will revolutionize how people work, entertain, and communicate by enabling lifelike interactions. However, the unprecedented demand for data transmission rate and the stringent requirements on latency and reliability create challenges for 6G networks to support immersive communications. In this survey article, we present the prospect of immersive communications and investigate emerging solutions to the corresponding challenges for 6G. First, we introduce use cases of immersive communications, in the fields of entertainment, education, and healthcare. Second, we present the concepts of immersive communications, including extended reality, haptic communication, and holographic communication, their basic implementation procedures, and their requirements on networks in terms of transmission rate, latency, and reliability. Third, we summarize the potential solutions to addressing the challenges from the aspects of communication, computing, and networking. Finally, we discuss future research directions and conclude this study.

From 5G-Advanced to 6G in 2030: New Services, 3GPP Advances, and Enabling Technologies

“…In addition to videoconferencing, IC have the potential to transform various industries and fields such as remote collaboration, education, training, telemedicine, virtual events, and more. It enables more natural and engaging communication, facilitating better understanding, collaboration, and innovation among individuals or groups, regardless of their physical location [16].…”

The Role of Artificial Intelligence in the Metaverse

“…AI-based structures and virtual simulations can decorate studies and facilitate knowledge acquisition within the metaverse (Shen, X et al, 2023). The use of AI within the metaverse permits the analysis of considerable datasets, uncovering patterns and accelerating the pace of discovery.…”

User Dynamics-Aware Edge Caching and Computing for Mobile Virtual Reality

“…When the request from VR headset u in time slot k, i.e., request d u,k , is scheduled, a computing 2 In Case 1, a computing unit is still needed to process the SVC to satisfy the video requirements of the corresponding VR headset [27], although the processing delay is negligible.…”

“…We first evaluate the performance of the proposed content placement scheme (i.e., Algs. [1][2][3] for caching VCs within a VC subset. We compare our proposed scheme with three benchmark cache size search, which searches the best cache size for caching SVCs, i.e., the best ω, from set {0, 0.1, .…”

“…A myriad of novel applications can be enabled by mobile VR, such as immersive gaming, telesurgery, metaverses, etc. [2]. With mobile VR, users can watch 360°stereoscopic videos through VR headsets and access the digital world with a fully immersive experience.…”