Hot Topic Abstract: Networking for immersive communications: a hybrid network for extended reality environments

Extended Reality (XR) demands high bandwidth and low-latency communication to support immersive experiences such as high-resolution 360-degree videos and real-time interactions in virtual reality gaming. In this paper, “resources” are defined as digital assets essential for XR applications, divided into “static resources” (immutable media files such as textures and video segments) and “dynamic resources” (real-time user data and interactive elements crucial for user interactions). A primary challenge in XR environments is optimizing the delivery and caching of these resources within existing network infrastructures to enhance the Quality of Experience (QoE) for users. We introduce a novel hybrid network architecture that integrates resource caching, user-to-user communication, and central server oversight. This architecture not only ensures reliable delivery but also significantly reduces communication latency. Preliminary experiments, conducted under conditions where each node in the network has a 10% chance of failing at any given time, demonstrate that our approach enhances the delivery efficiency of static resources by 68%, affecting 38% of communications, with an increase in latency observed in 4% of cases by 22%. For dynamic resources, it reduces latency in 89% of the cases by an average of 30%, though 8% of cases experienced a 36% increase in latency. These results affirm the effectiveness of our architecture in enhancing user experience in XR environments under challenging network conditions.