6G eXperimental Research infrastructure to enable next-generation XR services

Project Information

6G-XR

Grant agreement ID: 101096838

DOI

10.3030/101096838

Project closed

EC signature date 14 November 2022

Start date 1 January 2023

End date 31 December 2025

Funded under

• Digital, Industry and Space

Total cost

€ 9 421 131,75

EU contribution

€ 9 024 623,00

Coordinated by

OULUN YLIOPISTO
Finland

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - 6G-XR (6G eXperimental Research infrastructure to enable next-generation XR services)

Reporting period: 2023-01-01 to 2024-06-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

6G-XR project is building its objectives, ambition, and methodology on top of four state-of-the-art research research infrastructures (RIs), namely North Node (5GTN UOULU and 5GTN VTT) ans South Node (5TONIC and 5GBarcelona). These well-developed RIs represent the most evolved open environments for communications research in Europe. 6G-XR project will enhance the capabilities of these RIs to provide beyond-state-of-the-art capabilities towards 6G. The overarching objective of 6G-XR is to develop an evolvable experimental infrastructure for the duration of the SNS programme and beyond that covers demonstrating the performance of key beyond 5G/6G candidate technologies, components, and architectures to keep the infrastructures valid now, in mid-term and in long-term. It will demonstrate technological feasibility of “better than 5G” KPIs, innovative radio spectrum technologies and the use and sharing applicable to beyond 5G and 6G spectrum, validate a representative end-to-end beyond 5G architecture (and later 6G) including end-to-end service provisioning with slicing capabilities, and at cloud implementation level (Open RAN). Furthermore, 6G-XR shall validate multi access edge computing scenarios and their integration into a complete cloud continuum, support innovative use cases with vertical actors, beyond 5G capabilities, and support showcasing events. In addition, 6G-XR demonstrates and validates performance of innovative 6G applications with a focus on demanding immersive applications such as holographics, digital twins and extended/virtual reality. 6G-XR will support impactful contribution to standards, demonstrate the technological feasibility of key societal requirements and objectives such as energy reduction at both platform, and network levels.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Outlining the requirements for enabling XR use cases and identifying 6G-XR’s KPIs and KVIs, the architecture for the 6G-XR experimental infrastructure, called the Reference Architecture, was designed. This includes high-level functionality, logical structure, main functional units, and interfaces, covering the physical structure, main parts (e.g. RANs, network control, user equipment, testing tools), interfaces, and configuration options of the experimental sites and test facility infrastructures, providing a project-wide view of the architectural enablers required to support 6G-XR use cases on a mobile network infrastructure.

Gap analysis and initial solution design were performed for the north and south 5G nodes, analyzing the required Edge and Core network enablers, including Edge Computing, Edge Federation, Network Exposure, Network Slicing, and IMS Data Channel. The initial solution design of the XR Enablers, encompassing their requirements and the hardware and software used for their development, included multi-sensor volumetric capture and reconstruction, cloud/edge XR processing, adaptive and low latency XR delivery, multi-modal synchronization, session management, and media orchestration. Enablers concerning infrastructure configuration and KPI monitoring systems were outlined, along with 3GPP XR enablers, O-RAN XR enablers, and Disruptive XR enablers for beyond 5G RAN, core, and open-source networks, with a trial controller designed. Enablers concerning infrastructure configuration and KPI monitoring system are also included to improve the interoperability between the media processing capabilities and the computing infrastructure where they will run.

The central elements of the sustainability experimentation framework and gaps in current facilities for energy measurement solutions were identified. Improvements in the energy measurement framework (EMF) at VTT and UOULU sites and bilateral real-time data exchange were implemented. Promising BTS power-saving methods were identified, and external data sources were linked to the EMF infrastructure.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Results beyond the state of the art include the design and implementation of network as a service (NaaS) APIs for MEC orchestration and the coaching of UOULU students on AI algorithms for network slicing at the North node in WP2. Additionally, an XR application profiling tool enabler was developed in WP3. A Proof of concept of a holographic call via IMS data channel was implemented, with successful validation of application and web rendering adaptation. Network exposure enablers were analyzed, designed, and their implementation has started. An operational 3GPP RAN+UPF solution was deployed and validated in a lab environment, while the deployment of an IMS platform and IMSDC is 90% complete. A light-field-based volumetric capturer was completed, deployed at the South Node, and resulted in three derived innovations.

Design of beyond the state of the art features has been done on the following areas: (i) Edge Federation, with the design of the EWBI API to be used between Madrid and Barcelona Edges; (ii) Network Exposure, with the selection of some CAMARA and NEF APIs to be implemented in the experimentation lab; (iii) Network Slicing, with the design of features to be able to influence the slices according to 5G network conditions or where the application is running; and (iv) IMS Data Channel, with the deployment of this novel IMS solution, which is not yet fully standardized. Also, the deployment of the IMS Data Channel solution is ongoing in the south node, and must be completed to test the related use case’s E2E application traffic flow. In addition, beyond SOTA QUIC-based media streaming from an OC1 project has been integrated to test client mobility mechanisms.

Advances in several areas have been made beyond the state of the art: (i) Calibration mechanism and thermal compensation for volumetric capture; (ii) XR remote rendering and streaming protocols; (iii) QoS-aware adaptive media pipelines for holographic communications; (iv) Interfaces between edge orchestration and multimedia orchestration. The advances led to the generation of the first version of several XR Enablers that will be integrated with each other and with other solutions from the rest of working packages to test the defined use cases in the second half of the project. Papers have been published, while demos and workshops have been held during the first half of the project.