AT&T Unlocks the Power of Edge Computing: Delivering Interactive VR over 5G

The rise of edge computing is reshaping the way we think of our internet. As data and content generation become increasingly decentralized, so too must the supporting networks and cloud infrastructure. The disruptive potential of the edge is further driven by the arrival of 5G, the proliferation of connected devices, and the heavy, real-time computing requirements of emerging applications. Yet, the industry has only just begun to scratch the surface of the true value that edge computing can deliver. Designing applications for this new computing paradigm will require close collaboration across technology ecosystems, a practice that has always been foundational to our work at the Foundry.

This belief motivated the launch of the AT&T Foundry Edge Computing Zone program in 2018. Last year we successfully led collaborations with Ericsson, GridRaster and NVIDIA GeForceNOW to demonstrate the potential of edge computing to improve the performance of cloud-driven extended reality (XR) and gaming.

While most 5G and edge computing players have limited their VR demonstrations to the delivery of 360-degree video content, the Foundry has always been focused on pushing the boundaries to enable truly immersive, PC-quality experiences. However, achieving seamless six-degree-of-freedom (6DoF) movement in a digital 3D space is no small feat. Separating the server and display by a wireless network means introducing new confounding factors into the pipeline, such as encoding and decoding delays, transmission delay, packet loss and jitter.

This is especially challenging because networks and media streaming protocols weren't optimized for real-time, interactive content. These experiences have different requirements than static, file-based media, so we can't treat them the same way. Plus, the content capturing, rendering and display processes in 3D gaming engines were not originally designed to be hosted in the cloud.

In order to democratize access to 3D experiences, we need to merge elements of the two models and redesign the process from the ground-up. That means in addition to optimizing the performance of our network, we must work with our technology partners to reimagine and re-architect how these applications are designed and implemented.