Technology company Nokia has partnered with immersive tech platform Hololight to explore how L4S, a Nokia-invented internet protocol, can enable applications and networks to simultaneously achieve high throughput and low latency in a scalable way. This is aimed at improving the performance of real-time applications, especially cloud-rendered extended reality (XR) services, which require very low latency to create fully immersive experiences.
The proof of concept was first showcased at the Brooklyn 6G Summit and was tested to see how well L4S performs with a large number of XR users connected to the same network at the same time. Since L4S requires both the application and the network to work together, the collaboration between Nokia and Hololight is important for ensuring that L4S is properly used for key cases like XR.
Koen De Schepper, network automation research principal at Nokia Bell Labs said, “It’s important to grow the ecosystem and show what the L4S protocol can bring to communications, in particular, to 5G-Advanced systems and beyond. With its advanced XR applications, Hololight will help us explore the user experience for future applications and what these applications and future networks will need to support.”
Revolutionising XR
L4S (low-latency, low-loss, scalable throughput) was pioneered by Nokia to support the large-scale rollout of real-time applications, such as cloud gaming and augmented reality. L4S will be crucial for 5G-Advanced and Nokia is seemingly driving L4S standardisation efforts in 3GPP Release 18.
“Partnering with Nokia puts us at the forefront of 6G innovation. Together, we are excited to pioneer a solution that enables smooth and stable streaming of XR applications with a high number of active users, even in the most challenging environments, ensuring an unparalleled user experience,” said Philipp Landgraf, senior director of XR streaming at Hololight.
“The move to XR-based collaboration and digital prototyping is a monumental step towards reducing CO2 emissions by minimizing travel and waste, resulting in efficient production, minimized errors and a lighter environmental footprint,” Landgraf added.
L4S is also a key component of UNEXT, a new Nokia Bell Labs research initiative that is designed to transform the network into a self-managing, interactive operating system that will break down barriers that have traditionally prevented network elements from interoperating.
Hololight will host a networking event on the topic of Industrial Spatial Computing on November 9th at their office in Ismaning, Germany.
Isa Muhammad is a writer and video game journalist covering many aspects of entertainment media including the film industry. He's steadily writing his way to the sharp end of journalism and enjoys staying informed. If he's not reading, playing video games or catching up on his favourite TV series, then he's probably writing about them.
