The GSMA has announced the launch of GSMA Cloud AR/VR Forum that will focus on the development of cloud virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technology.
The programme which was unveiled at Huawei’s 9th Global Mobile Broadband Forum in London, is backed by mobile operators including China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, KDDI, KT, NTT DOCOMO, SK Telecom, Telefonica, Telenor, TIM, Turkcell and Vodafone, as well as other industry partners including Huawei and HTC. The programme aims to encourage all parties to collaborate on accelerating the delivery and deployment of 5G cloud-based AR/VR services.
“Both VR and AR are disruptive forms of immersive multimedia that, combined with operator edge cloud and 5G connectivity, will transform the cost structures of the enterprise and entertainment fields,” commented Alex Sinclair, Chief Technology Officer, GSMA.
“Mobile operators will play a key role in its development, but without a common approach and industry-wide collaboration we risk fragmenting the market from the beginning. The establishment of this forum will overcome this hurdle and ensure we can scale compelling solutions faster,” added Sinclair.
The new forum aims to encourage knowledge sharing between members, as well as discussion about new business models including the development of a service reference architecture to avoid cost fragmentation. It will also focus on technical development areas including research into ultra-low latency codec compression, graphics processing unit (GPU) rendering in the cloud and virtualisation technologies, as well as the development of simplified interfaces so that developers can easily deploy services.
Cloud AR/VR technology also requires an incredibly fast, low latency bandwidth data connection in order to deliver an ultra-high resolution 4K or 8K viewing experience. 5G will be able to deliver this via its new network capabilities as well as a more reliable experience through edge cloud, which opens up ultra low latency services.
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