Project

Context-Aware Millimeter Wave Network for Interactive Virtual and Augmented Reality

Acronym
WaveVR
Code
3G034322
Duration
01 January 2022 → 31 December 2025
Funding
Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO)
Promotor-spokesperson
Research disciplines
  • Engineering and technology
    • Computer communication networks
    • Video communications
    • Wireless communications
Keywords
wireless networks VR/AR bandwidth
 
Project description

Virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) has arisen as the killer application for future wireless networks. Such applications are expected to require up to several gigabits per second (Gbps) of throughput, as well as millisecond end-to-end latency to enable interactivity. Current wireless local area networking (WLAN) technologies, such as Wi-Fi, cannot attain such high throughputs. However, increasing the radio transmission frequency up to the millimeter-wave (mmWave) band (i.e., 30-300 gigahertz), would support network throughputs up to tens or even hundreds of Gbps. One important hurdle needs to be overcome though: mmWave transmission suffers from high propagation loss and heavy attenuation by obstacles (e.g., walls, people). As such, latency and throughput are highly variable due to user movement and obstacles. In WaveVR we aim to address this issue, and make mmWave technology suitable for future interactive VR/AR applications with mobile devices. We will achieve stable throughput and millisecond latency by introducing the novel concept of context-awareness to mmWave networks. User, network and environmental context (e.g., user location and movement, detected obstacles) will be used to optimize protocols from the data link to the application layer, and enable seamless multi access point transmissions to avoid obstacles. A novel evaluation approach, combining technical metrics with user perception is envisioned.