Telco Edge Cloud (TEC) – 5G XR Global MEC PaaS Trial
Enabling low latency extended reality (XR) services and applications on multiple MNO edge networks
Deutsche Telekom
KDDI
Mawari
MobiledgeX
Sturfee
In this demo application, the XR streaming solution delivers a real-time multiplayer experience featuring hyper-realistic, personalized digital assistants that lead app users on a guided tour of Bonn, Germany or Tokyo, Japan. The digital tour guide and virtual, interactive billboard advertisements are overlaid atop the user’s real world view.
Trial Concept
Harmonized Low Latency XR Enabling Services and Applications on Multiple Operator Edge Networks
To provide the best user experience, next generation mobile applications like XR require close proximity to support APIs and SDKs in backend code, and deliver the quality of experience and scale that mobile application users demand.
To address that requirement, there’s a growing need for consistent APIs and cloud services to be deployed within MNO edge networks to support these next generation applications in an easy and consistent way. For MNOs, the challenge is speed, scale and collaboration. Today, MNOs cannot benefit from each other’s complementary market development, especially in the area of discovering new “in-network” services that will be required to power the next generation of apps and solutions.
Footprint
Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) and fast 5G for streaming rich cloud rendered interactive content and instant localization with Visual Positioning Service (VPS)
Objective of the trial
Prove the ability to achieve cross-region, cross-operator availability of homogeneous enabler APIs and services powered by telco edge computing for XR
- Deployment and lifecycle management of VPS and cloud rendering & streaming services over an edge PaaS with two different underlying operator IaaS stacks
- Local edge discovery by the end-user application
- Localized content delivered to the end user
Validate the benefit of telco edge for XR enabling services
- Data locality and low-latency for VPS
- Server-grade GPU enabled high-quality rendering in combination with low-latency streaming to achieve a better user experience
- Real-time synchronized hyperlocal experience, i.e. synchronizing the users in the same location with low-latency
5G XR MEC PaaS Trial by KDDI, DT, MobiledgeX, Sturfee, Mawari
Concept:
Easy and consistent way of developing XR applications and deploying to global Multiple Operator MECs
Teaming up:
Operator MECs – DT in Germany and KDDI in Japan
Platform – MobiledgeX
Application – Sturfee (VPS) and Mawari (3D/XR Streaming)
Launched in June 2021, as part of GSMA TEC Trials initiatives:
Press-release on 29 June 2021 (MWC)
Preliminary results and demonstration video released:
Press-release on 26 October 2021 (MWC LA) with TEC Forum presentation on 18 November 2021
Final results: To be shared at TEC Forum Open Session on 10 March 2022
Acceleration of global edge-enabled XR application development
PaaS providing XR core techs (VPS and XR-streaming) as API/SDK
- -> Developers can locate their immersive XR content on various global regions!
- VPS: satellite-imagery based high-precision localization system of Sturfee
- XR-streaming: New delivery framework for an interactive 3D Content of Mawari
KDDI’s au VISION STUDIO created a super photo-realistic 3DCG character “coh” which looks like real humans
-> Rendering requires huge computing resources and cloud based processing on top of 5G edge NW is essential to realize ultra-low latency interactive UXs.
MobiledgeX Edge-Cloud platform provides unified access to 5G edge networks jointly provided by KDDI and Deutsche Telekom
TEC Trial Results
Global PaaS for edge-enabled XR techs successfully completed!
- Sturfee/Mawari could easily deploy their unified backend services on top of a common platform (MobiledgeX) across KDDI’s and Deutsche Telekom’s 5G edge resources
- -> Dynamic/Optimized deployment with just one API call to multiple MNO’s edge networks
- The demo app delivers multiplayer experience featuring hyper-realistic, personalized digital assistants that lead app users on a guided tour of Bonn, Germany or Tokyo, Japan.
- -> Various immersive XR content can be overlaid atop the user’s real world view via VPS
Next Steps / Future Plans
- Make the APIs/SDKs available for XR developers’ use via “KDDI Open API”
- Collaboration with additional MNOs and expand coverage in the world
- Develop and deploy innovative applications / use cases using the XR MEC PaaS
-> Accelerate the fusion of Virtual/Real worlds with 5G and MEC
Demonstration Video
About Telco Edge Cloud (TEC) Pre-Commercial Trials
The GSMA Foundry brings the industry together to collaborate around a number of pre-commercial trials of Telco Edge Cloud capabilities with app developers and service providers, sponsored by the industry partners and supported by MNOs. Find out more about the trials at gsma.com/FutureNetworks.
