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How 5G & Edge Computing Boost Virtual and Augmented Reality

Mohammed NaserMohammed Naser

5G & edge computing help provide fast and reliable data and foster better collaboration for applications such as VR and AR. Here's how.

How 5G & Edge Computing Boost Virtual and Augmented Reality

The arrival 5G has people across the world talking about 'perfect' connectivity. In a more remote world since the beginning of the pandemic, 5G & edge computing are seen and accepted as the need of the hour. They help provide fast and reliable data and foster a better collaborative environment for various industry-specific applications and technology, such as VR and AR.

Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) are two technologies that significantly impact modern industries and life. Recent studies have revealed that 70% of early adopters believe that VR and AR will change everyday life for humans. As comparatively new entrants with a lot of potential in the internet space, 5G & Edge computing can take VR and AR to new levels, creating new business models. Before we see how that happens, here is an overview of 5G & edge computing.

5G & Edge Computing

5G, or the 5th generation standard for cellular broadband networks, improves connectivity across the board for modern communication devices. The projected business potential with 5G for industries is up to $700 billion, a staggering 35% increase from the traditional consumer market.

Latency or response time comparison is another major factor that shows how much technology has grown with 5G. While 3G offered an average response time of 100 milliseconds and 4G a time of 30 milliseconds, 5G reduces this to 1 millisecond, almost real-time response.

Several technologies profoundly impact the growth of 5G, contributing to its high-reliability, high-capacity, low latency, and overall cost reductive nature. These mutually beneficial technologies include cloud computing, virtualization, AI, Machine Learning, cloud-native, orchestration, and network management.

Edge computing is a technology that gets computing services such as networking, analytics, and storage closer to end-users and consumers. The technology provides companies with an advantage in managing vast amounts of data generated through the Internet of Things (IoT) and mobile devices. Edge technology is also considered an efficient solution for data growth and management. We have extensively covered edge computing technology in one of our previous posts and, therefore, are not elaborating much on it here.

5G and edge computing combined are said to play a vital role in bringing about the 4th industrial revolution, where the divisions between physical and digital worlds blur. Virtual and augmented realities are part and parcel of this revolution, as they help create alternate realities for users. Here's how the combination of these technologies happens.

Advantages of 5G & Edge Computing on AR/VR

AR and VR are transforming the way we interact with content both from industrial and consumer perspectives. Making this level of synchronization possible is not without its challenges. This is where the advantages of 5G and edge computing come in place.

For example, in a cloud scenario, rendering images and videos for VR can be very intensive and needs high levels of processing power and equivalent data transmission capabilities. There were challenges in terms of latency and overall output with previously available technology, which sometimes drove users testing the efficiency of the technologies involved. With a certain number of these tasks undertaken by edge computing (split workload) and 5G enabling faster data transmission, output with low latency is ensured for virtual and augmented realities. Increase reliability is also another advantage.

The arrival of 5G & edge computing changes the game for many industries using augmented and virtual realities. The major players here are the automotive industry, educational industry, gaming industry, healthcare industry, and retail industry. There are significant improvements projected in terms of research and output for these industries through the aforementioned applications.

As a cloud computing provider associated with most of these industries, we are excited to see and be a part of this revolution. Many of our clients use cloud solutions such as highly secure and scalable private cloud to further their usage of augmented and virtual realities through the adoption of 5G and edge.

Speaking of private clouds, you can now run on a fully agile and customized cloud from VEXXHOST, with no licensing fees and smooth 2-week migration. In fact, we're ready to put our money where our mouth is. We're so confident in being able to save you at least 20% or more on your current cloud infrastructure expenditure that if proven wrong- we'll give you $1,000 credit to our public cloud.

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