5G Networks: Are we there yet? Miloš Liška Sitola, Telč 14.9.2023 High-quality, low-latency AV transmissions ■ Why anything special? ■ We do have Zoom, Pexip, EduMeet, MS Teams, Webex, Meetup etc. ■ What if you need high-quality video ■ Full HD at least like in TV but also 4K, 8K (or 16K) video ■ Stereoscopic video, 360° video ■ More video inputs at once ■ Low-latency ■ as low as tens of ms end-to-end up to ~170ms end-to-end w/ processing Applications Applications Tools ■ We develop state-of-art SW for very high-quality and low latency audiovisual transmissions ■ UltraGrid ■ A swiss-army-knife SW platform for very high-quality interactive video (up to 16K) and audio transmissions ■ As low latency as possible on commodity hardware and reasonable networks ■ Point-to-point and point-to-multipoint transmissions ■ Use of commodity (gaming) hardware, laptops, even Raspberry Pi ■ Linux and Windows PC and Mac OS platforms ■ Commodity video capture cards, gaming capture cards, webcams, Ximea cameras ■ Commodity sound cards, USB sound cards (ASIO not officially supported) ■ Commodity GPU cards Medical Applications ■ Video assisted surgeries ■ Dental surgeries, Gastroenterology, Gynecology ■ Stroke management simulations ■ Cardiology ■ Interventional cardiology, Electrophysiology ■ Ear-nose-throat surgeries ■ General surgery ■ Non-intubated lungs surgery ■ Urology ■ Including 3D video assisted surgeries using the DaVinci robot Central European Endoscopic Ear Surgery Course Stereoscopic video in medicine - DaVinci Stereoscopic video in medicine - DaVinci Medical Applications IKAK FNUSA Brno, FN HK , FN Brno, CKTCH Brno, Institute of Cardiology in Anin, Warsaw (Poland), IKEM, Nem. Třinec, FN Olomouc, Nemocnice Blansko, Boskovice, Ivančice, Kyjov, FN Královské Vinohrady, FN Plzeň, FN Trnava, Nem. Vítkovice Ostrava, Baťova nemocnice Zlín, FN HK, Masarykova nemocnice Ústí nad Labem, VFN Praha ARK FNUSA, Dentální klinika Praha Holešovice, Nemocnice Na Homolce, DMC Klinika Hradec Králové. IKEM, FN Ostrava, MNO Fifejdy, Masarykova nemocnice Ústí nad Labem, FN Motol Network Requirements ■ Any “reasonable” network ■ Beginning from DSL up to 100Gbps optical networks Network Reality Nowadays ■ We had been building network infrastructure avidly 20 years ago ■ Nothing was a problem ■ We do have high-speed networks today, right? Right? ■ Aggregation ■ Networks are really best effort only ■ Packet loss is quite inevitable, it is necessary to use FEC techniques ■ Poor IPv6 adoption (especially on last mile) ■ NAT (w/ dynamic port reassignment) ■ Firewalls and Security incl. Netflow analysis ■ We can do high quality (and low latency) AV transmissions using VPNs (but it is a major PITA) So what about 5G networks? What is a 5G network anyway? ■ 5G causes cancer, 5G is the cause for COVID-19, 5G weakens the immune system ■ 5G kills birds or insects ■ COVID-19 is a cover to embed microchips within COVID-19 vaccine for controlling people via 5G, The 5G grid is part of a larger surveillance and artificial intelligence agenda, 5G frequencies are used for crowd dispersal, 5G maps the insides of bodies and homes, 5G replicates inside the body and causes re-radiation What is a 5G network anyway? ■ Cellular network ■ 5G New Radio ■ Low-band - similar frequency range to 4G cellphones, 600–900 MHz, potentially offer higher download speeds than 4G: 5–250 Mbps, coverage similar to 4G ■ Mid-band - microwaves of 1.7–4.7 GHz, speeds of 100–900 Mbit/s ■ High-band - millimeter wave band 24–27 GHz, gigabit speeds, coverage up to 600m ■ Network Core ■ Mobility management, routing, security, policy control, charging, and subscriber data management ■ Data network ■ Standards call for 100/50Mbps granted per connected client ■ Peek throughput of 10Gbps* * Applies to a cell, when there is only one user on the network! Also mind the aggregation. 100Mbps download speed was already available with 4G. That’s only 100 clients per cell! Real deployment? ■ Robustel GSM-R5020-5G-B 5G router, std. antennas ■ Decent industrial IoT 5G router ■ Indoor, typical deployment in hospitals in our case ■ IKK FN Brno 16,3Mbps D/10,0 Mbps U, LTE, RSRP -109dBm, RSRQ -15dBm ■ IKAK FNUSA Brno 36,6Mbps D/35,2 Mbps U, LTE, RSRP -96dBm, RSRQ -8 dBm ■ But 1Mbps D/0,25Mbps U behind first automatic door ■ Hotel Flora Olomouc 14,7Mbps D/23,4 Mbps U, 5G, RSRP -85dBm, RSRQ -14 dBm ■ 5G NSA (non standalone), LTE 10,3 Mbps U/19,5 Mbps D ■ Cubex Praha 110,5Mbps D/35,5 Mbps U, LTE, RSRP -86dBm, RSRQ -10 dBm RSRP (dBm) - (Reference Signal Receive Power) - signal intensity, RSRQ (dB) - (reference signal quality) Real deployment? Real drive (walk) test! Nperf Dataset Real deployment - lessons learned ■ Real 5G radio coverage is much smaller than advertised ■ Non standalone architecture - 4G Core only - limited to ~150/50Mbps by design ■ Indoor usage vs. outdoor usage ■ Outdoor usage basically corresponds to what is advertised ■ Indoor usage – generally ■ Sitola is a nice exception – 4G LTE only, but full throttle, close to BTS w/ direct visibility ■ NAT ■ Dynamic port reassignment ■ Somewhat usable for HD/4K streaming/broadcasting but hardly for low-latency and high-quality video transmissions But they did even 8K video over 5G! ■ 2019 Roland Garros French TV, Orange, VLC authors experiment ■ 2x 100Mbps HEVC10 8K60p unicast (TV) 1x 100Mbps HEVC10 8K60p (Orange) ■ 2 5G 3.6GHz cells w/ 5G core, 250Mbps each covering a single tribune! ■ Also a huge latency just below 10s What can we do with 4G? ■ Sitola, Fri 25 Aug 2023, 12:45 ■ 4G LTE, Band 3 1800MHz, RSRP -68dBm, RSRQ -7dBm ■ 192,4Mbps D/64,5 Mbps U ■ hd13 → 4G LTE → coral.fi.muni.cz ■ 4K30p, H.264/HEVC, ABR 50Mbps, UDP ■ Rate limiting! ■ No packet loss! ■ End-to-end latency ~170ms CESNET/VSB-TUO 5G mmWave ■ 26,5 – 27,5GHz band (mmWave) ■ CTO (Czech Telecommunications Office) eventually decided to divide the band to 200MHz subbands, theoretical throughput still 2,5Gbps CESNET/VSB-TUO 5G mmWave Where is the catch? 5G core! ■ Radio capable of transmitting almost 3Gbps ■ Persisting 5G core (Ericsson) firmware issues Stay tuned! Questions? milos.liska@cesnet.cz