End-to-end latency assurance for distributed augmented reality over programmable 6G networks: A DESIRE6G demonstration

6G networks are expected to deliver ultra-low latency, high reliability, and real-time intelligence for emerging services such as interactive Augmented Reality (AR), autonomous robotics, and digital twins. Achieving these requirements in practice demands tight coordination between networking, computing, and control domains, spanning RAN, transport, edge, and cloud. However, current 5G deployments lack pervasive telemetry, fine-grained observability, and automated control mechanisms capable of reacting at the time scales required by latency-sensitive applications. This paper presents a full integrated demonstration of DESIRE6G, a cloud-native 6G-ready architecture that leverages programmable data planes with P4 for flexible routing and telemetry using an implementation of novel data plane protocols, achieves distributed optimization of service deployment and runtime monitoring and reconfiguration via secure multi-agent systems (MAS), combined with intent-based orchestration layer for end-to-end service assurance. The system is validated on the federated ARNO testbed using a real distributed AR application involving a remotely-controlled drone as a User-Equipment that is equipped with a camera streaming a live video through the DESIRE6G network to a Kubernetes edge cluster that executes serverless inference functions for object detection and recognition, the video is then augmented with object information and shown on a Quest 3 AR headset. The MAS monitors the end-to-end latency in real time through P4 Telemetry and responds to changes in network conditions by reconfiguring the affected segments, while the Kubernetes monitoring provides real-time visibility and scalability across different segments. Overall, three hierarchical service assurance loops are demonstrated: (i) In-Network Control (INC) executing microsecond-scale congestion recovery in the P4 data plane, (ii) Infrastructure Management Layer (IML) performing millisecond-scale function migration and scaling, and (iii) MAS-driven cross-domain optimization operating at sub-second time scales to resolve RAN latency anomalies. Evaluation results show stable end-to-end latency in the 15–25 ms range in steady-state conditions, with fast recovery during induced congestion ≤ 1 . 5 ms data plane reroute via P4 INC.