Field Test of 5G New Radio (NR) UL-MIMO and UL-256QAM for HD Live-Streaming

TL;DR

This study evaluates the real-world performance of 5G NR uplink enhancements, UL-MIMO and UL-256QAM, for HD live-streaming, revealing their impact on video quality and connection stability in commercial networks.

Contribution

It provides a practical assessment of UL-MIMO and UL-256QAM effects on live-streaming, using firmware modifications for fair comparison on commercial 5G devices.

Findings

UL-MIMO and UL-256QAM improve streaming stability

Spectral efficiency gains are quantified through RF parameter analysis

Enhanced uplink features reduce dropped frames in live video

Abstract

The exponential growth of User-Generated Content (UGC), especially High-Definition (HD) live video streaming, places a significant demand on the uplink capabilities of mobile networks. To address this, the 5G New Radio (NR) standard introduced key uplink enhancements, including Uplink Multi-Input Multi-Output (UL-MIMO) and Uplink 256QAM, to improve throughput and spectral efficiency. However, while the benefits of these features for raw data rates are well-documented, their practical impact on real-time applications like live-streaming is not yet well understood. This paper investigates the performance of UL-MIMO and UL-256QAM for HD live-streaming over a commercial 5G network using the Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP). To ensure a fair assessment, we conduct a comparative analysis by modifying the modem firmware of commercial User Equipment (UE), allowing these features to be selectively enabled and disabled on the same device. Performance is evaluated based on key metrics, including dropped video frames and connection stability. Furthermore, this study analyzes 5G Radio Frequency (RF) parameters to quantify the spectral efficiency impact, specifically examining metrics derived from the Channel State Information (CSI) framework, including Reference Signal Received Power (CSI-RSRP), Reference Signal Received Quality (CSI-RSRQ), and Signal-to-Interference-plus-Noise Ratio (CSI-SINR).