User-Based Adaptive Multimedia Delivery Over 5G Network

Introduction

The continuous increase in the number of mobile devices and users on one hand and advent of ubiquitous communication technologies, development of innovative networking applications and user demand for high quality rich media content on the other hand are behind the latest massive amounts of data generated and exchanged, whose volume continues to grow at an exponential pace. For instance, the data digital universe is experiencing a two-fold expansion every two years since 2012 so that the annual global IP traffic is expected to reach 2.3 zettabytes per year by 2020 (Cisco, 2017a). By 2020, wired communications will be responsible for 34% of IP traffic (down from 52% in 2015), whereas Wi-Fi and mobile devices will account for 66% of IP traffic. At the same time mobile video traffic is estimated to reach 77% of the total traffic by 2020, up from 55% in 2015 (Cisco, 2017b). These trends show that both the number of high-end mobile devices and user consumption of high-bandwidth services are increasing (e.g. a tablet exchanges rich media traffic as much as 113 phones with basic features). The average number of devices per capita is also increasing, with classic PCs and new smart devices being lately complemented by wearable devices and device-to-device (D2D) communicating machines. Additionally, network technologies have also diversified and technologies including the latest ones such as IEEE 802.11ac for wireless broadband, LTE and LTE-A for cellular and DVB-T2 for broadcast are supporting high speed wireless information exchange.

In this context, no single network technology and no single network provider will be equipped to deal with the explosion of data and diverse services as described by UE views. It is also not realistic a scenario where the potentialities of the new 5G will be materialized based exclusively on completely brand new technologies/standards, that will substitute current network infrastructures. The proponents believe that the 5G services can only be realistically implemented making innovative use of the co-existing broadband, broadcast and cellular network technologies (Andrews et al., 2014; The European Commission, n.d.). Cross-network optimisation will be a key component of the 5G solution. In this context there should be a global effort towards the creation of a convergent service quality-oriented network delivery environment. This environment should be composed of inter-connected networks over which services are offered at best quality level, given service requirements, network technology availability, network delivery conditions, device characteristics and user profiles.

There are currently different views of the implications of the emerging 5G networks, services and applications. There is the mainstream push towards building a landscape with a very high increase in data volume and large number of network-connected devices, offering access to an increasing number of rich media services. At the same time, efforts are put to support quality-orientation for these rich media services and to enable operation cost reduction and energy-awareness.

In parallel, these technical offerings foster exploitation of media and content convergence opportunities. These opportunities appear in form of content aggregation, annotation, personalization, media-sharing for the diverse services, targeting increased user experience (e.g. hyper-personalized, real-time storytelling, free viewpoint, and other advanced contents and formats).