Performance Evaluation of Low-Latency Live Streaming of MPEG-DASH UHD video over Commercial 5G NSA/SA Network

TL;DR

This study evaluates the performance of low-latency UHD live streaming over MPEG-DASH on 5G networks, demonstrating that 5G SA significantly outperforms NSA in delivering high-quality, low-latency video content.

Contribution

It provides empirical performance data showing 5G SA's superiority over NSA for UHD live streaming with minimal buffer, highlighting the importance of 5G SA for low-latency applications.

Findings

5G SA delivers over 95% of UHD segments within the deadline across various conditions.

LTE network fails to deliver more than 80% of segments on time, indicating limitations.

5G NSA's performance varies and is less reliable for low-latency UHD streaming.

Abstract

5G Standalone (SA) is the goal of the 5G evolution, which aims to provide higher throughput and lower latency than the existing LTE network. One of the main applications of 5G is the real-time distribution of Ultra High-Definition (UHD) content with a resolution of 4K or 8K. In Q2/2021, Advanced Info Service (AIS), the biggest operator in Thailand, launched 5G SA, providing both 5G SA/NSA service nationwide in addition to the existing LTE network. While many parts of the world are still in process of rolling out the first phase of 5G in Non-Standalone (NSA) mode, 5G SA in Thailand already covers more than 76% of the population. In this paper, UHD video will be a real-time live streaming via MPEG-DASH over different mobile network technologies with minimal buffer size to provide the lowest latency. Then, performance such as the number of dropped segments, MAC throughput, and latency are evaluated in various situations such as stationary, moving in the urban area, moving at high speed, and also an ideal condition with maximum SINR. It has been found that 5G SA can deliver more than 95% of the UHD video segment successfully within the required time window in all situations, while 5G NSA produced mixed results depending on the condition of the LTE network. The result also reveals that the LTE network failed to deliver more than 20% of the video segment within the deadline, which shows that 5G SA is absolutely necessary for low-latency UHD video streaming and 5G NSA may not be good enough for such task as it relies on the legacy control signal.