XR Streaming Performance With Wi-Fi 7 Multi-Link Operation
Extended Reality (XR) has stringent throughput and delay requirements that are hard to meet with current wireless technologies. Missing these requirements can lead to worsened picture quality, perceived lag between user input and corresponding output, and even dizziness for the end user. In this pap...
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| Format: | Article |
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IEEE
2025-01-01
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| Series: | IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society |
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| Online Access: | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11107236/ |
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| author | Marc Carrascosa-Zamacois Lorenzo Galati-Giordano Francesc Wilhelmi Gianluca Fontanesi Anders Jonsson Giovanni Geraci Boris Bellalta |
| author_facet | Marc Carrascosa-Zamacois Lorenzo Galati-Giordano Francesc Wilhelmi Gianluca Fontanesi Anders Jonsson Giovanni Geraci Boris Bellalta |
| author_sort | Marc Carrascosa-Zamacois |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Extended Reality (XR) has stringent throughput and delay requirements that are hard to meet with current wireless technologies. Missing these requirements can lead to worsened picture quality, perceived lag between user input and corresponding output, and even dizziness for the end user. In this paper, we study the capability of Wi-Fi 7, and its novel support for Multi-Link Operation (MLO), to cope with these tight requirements. Our study is based on simulation results extracted from an MLO-compliant simulator that realistically reproduces VR traffic. Results show that MLO can sustain Virtual Reality (VR) applications. By jointly using multiple links with independent channel access procedures, MLO can reduce the overall delay, which is especially useful in the uplink, as it has more stringent requirements than the downlink, and is instrumental in delivering the expected performance. We show that using MLO can support more users per Access Point (AP) than an equivalent number of links using Single Link Operation (SLO). We also show that, while maintaining the same overall bandwidth, a higher number of MLO links with narrower channels leads to lower delays than a lower number of links with wider channels. We also study the impact of Overlapping Basic Service Sets (OBSS) on performance of XR applications, showing how SLO struggles to maintain a low delay when OBSS activity increases, and how MLO can cope with this interference by using MLO-aware channel assignment strategies. Finally, we consider random positioning for the users, showcasing that MLO can support <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$5\times $ </tex-math></inline-formula> more users than SLO. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-4ac021a7bf294bc7bbb67c78dfe327bd |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2644-125X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | IEEE |
| record_format | Article |
| series | IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society |
| spelling | doaj-art-4ac021a7bf294bc7bbb67c78dfe327bd2025-08-25T23:19:04ZengIEEEIEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society2644-125X2025-01-0166477649010.1109/OJCOMS.2025.359495011107236XR Streaming Performance With Wi-Fi 7 Multi-Link OperationMarc Carrascosa-Zamacois0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4387-4192Lorenzo Galati-Giordano1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8862-2319Francesc Wilhelmi2https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3936-535XGianluca Fontanesi3Anders Jonsson4https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5756-7847Giovanni Geraci5https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9998-1747Boris Bellalta6https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7826-3703Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya, Barcelona, SpainRadio System Research, Nokia Bell Labs, Stuttgart, GermanyDepartment of Engineering, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, SpainRadio System Research, Nokia Bell Labs, Stuttgart, GermanyDepartment of Engineering, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, SpainDepartment of Engineering, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, SpainDepartment of Engineering, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, SpainExtended Reality (XR) has stringent throughput and delay requirements that are hard to meet with current wireless technologies. Missing these requirements can lead to worsened picture quality, perceived lag between user input and corresponding output, and even dizziness for the end user. In this paper, we study the capability of Wi-Fi 7, and its novel support for Multi-Link Operation (MLO), to cope with these tight requirements. Our study is based on simulation results extracted from an MLO-compliant simulator that realistically reproduces VR traffic. Results show that MLO can sustain Virtual Reality (VR) applications. By jointly using multiple links with independent channel access procedures, MLO can reduce the overall delay, which is especially useful in the uplink, as it has more stringent requirements than the downlink, and is instrumental in delivering the expected performance. We show that using MLO can support more users per Access Point (AP) than an equivalent number of links using Single Link Operation (SLO). We also show that, while maintaining the same overall bandwidth, a higher number of MLO links with narrower channels leads to lower delays than a lower number of links with wider channels. We also study the impact of Overlapping Basic Service Sets (OBSS) on performance of XR applications, showing how SLO struggles to maintain a low delay when OBSS activity increases, and how MLO can cope with this interference by using MLO-aware channel assignment strategies. Finally, we consider random positioning for the users, showcasing that MLO can support <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$5\times $ </tex-math></inline-formula> more users than SLO.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11107236/Multi-link operationXR streamingIEEE 802.11beWi-Fi 7 |
| spellingShingle | Marc Carrascosa-Zamacois Lorenzo Galati-Giordano Francesc Wilhelmi Gianluca Fontanesi Anders Jonsson Giovanni Geraci Boris Bellalta XR Streaming Performance With Wi-Fi 7 Multi-Link Operation IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society Multi-link operation XR streaming IEEE 802.11be Wi-Fi 7 |
| title | XR Streaming Performance With Wi-Fi 7 Multi-Link Operation |
| title_full | XR Streaming Performance With Wi-Fi 7 Multi-Link Operation |
| title_fullStr | XR Streaming Performance With Wi-Fi 7 Multi-Link Operation |
| title_full_unstemmed | XR Streaming Performance With Wi-Fi 7 Multi-Link Operation |
| title_short | XR Streaming Performance With Wi-Fi 7 Multi-Link Operation |
| title_sort | xr streaming performance with wi fi 7 multi link operation |
| topic | Multi-link operation XR streaming IEEE 802.11be Wi-Fi 7 |
| url | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11107236/ |
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