Toward Supporting XR Services: Architecture and Enablers

Emerging cross-reality (XR) applications, including holography, augmented, virtual, and mixed reality, are characterized by unprecedented requirements for Quality of Experience (QoE), largely exceeding those currently attainable. To cope with these requirements, noticeable efforts and a number of initiatives are ongoing to enhance the current communications technologies, especially in the direction of supporting ultralow latency and increased bandwidth. This work proposes an architecture that puts together the key enablers to support future XR applications, highlighting the shortcomings of existing technologies and leveraging the ongoing innovations. It demonstrates the feasibility of the proposed architecture by describing the processes driving the platform with relevant use case scenarios, and mapping the envisioned functionality to existing tools.