Split Rendering with L4S Over 5G for Latency Critical Interactive XR Applications

In recent years, immersive applications have drawn the attention of industry and research. Besides, with the latest interest in the metaverse, extended reality (XR) applications are focusing on photo-realistic representations to improve the immersive experience. However, realistic representations require complex scenes and objects in terms of rendering or computation, and stand-alone or mobile XR devices still have limitations to handle such complexity. Split rendering, identified as a key enabler for 5G XR services by standardization, can address this issue by shifting complexity to the network edge, which consists of carrying out the complex rendering by powerful edge devices and transmitting a simple version of the object, such as a 2D or stereoscopic video to the end device. This article presents an implemented split rendering system designed to facilitate real-time communication while preserving the realistic representation on standalone or XR mobile devices. Moreover, to address the stringent latency requirements imposed in the split rendering, we integrate low loss, and scalable throughput (L4S) protocol with a proposed congestion control algorithm (CCA) into the split rendering system. The presented CCA demonstrates its ability to transport stable streaming while meeting the quality of service (QoS) requirements of XR services.