UNITY-6G: Hololight's Role in Next-Generation XR over 6G Networks

Castelldefels, Spain, January 27-29  -  The Kick-Off Meeting for UNITY-6G took place in Spain, near Barcelona. Hosted by the project coordinator CTTC, this meeting marked the official launch of the three-year EC-funded project under the Horizon Europe Framework, in collaboration with SNS JU (Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking). Hololight contributed to Work Packages 2, 3, 5, 6, and 7, with primary validation efforts focused on Proof of Concept 1 — the use case for immersive real-time XR communications over 6G networks. Special thanks to Leesa Joyce, project manager of the UNITY 6G Project, for her insightful introduction to this remarkable EU Horizon initiative.

Introduction to the Horizon Project

UNITY-6G aimed to create a highly sustainable and scalable integrated AI-native architecture that can support the diverse requirements of 6G networks by relying on advanced technologies, such as distributed ledger technology, semantic communications, and digital network twinning to enhance the performance, cost-efficiency and trustworthiness of integrated 6G network services and applications. The focus is on scalability and sustainability for integrated networks — Non-Terrestrial and Terrestrial Networks, xHaul, Open RAN, Non-Public Networks, Edge, Core and Cloud. Furthermore, UNITY-6G aimed to evolve to real-time distributed and network state-aware Open RAN that can leverage the integration of distributed applications in the integrated architecture. This will enable fine-grained data-driven management and control via incorporating dApps, distributed applications that complement existing xApps/rApps and use cases with stricter timing requirements in an integrated network. Common interfaces and protocols will be defined so that different heterogenous domains can communicate seamlessly.

To better guide the design, UNITY-6G used the principles of service-based architecture for integrated networks and leveraged digital twins for network evaluation. UNITY-6G considered four use cases targeting:

• Sustainable networks for disaster handling,

• Immersive Experience with Real-time XR/holographic communications,

• Digital Twin for Integrated 6G Network Evaluation,

• Multi-RAT O-RAN enabled NPN for supporting time sensitive applications for Industry 4.0.

Use case: Immersive Experience with Real-time XR/holographic communications

As the demand for immersive and interactive experiences continues to grow, there is growing demand for advanced communication technologies that can support real-time, high-quality XR and holographic communications. Semantic-aware integrated networks using 6G have the potential to meet this demand by leveraging advanced technologies such as AI and context-aware computing to enable intelligent communication.

The goal of this use case was to create a next-generation communication platform that can support the growing demand for immersive and interactive experiences while also ensuring sustainability and energy efficiency. UNITY-6G aimed to provide a high-quality, low-latency communication network for transmitting 3D XR and holographic video in real time. The development of such an integrated network is crucial for applications where high-quality 3D XR and holographic video is essential for providing a realistic and immersive experience. Such an integrated network will be capable of handling large amounts of data and quickly allocating computational and communication resources based on the requirements of each task. A semantic-aware integrated network for real-time holographic 6G communications will use flexible resource allocation and task placement based on semantic-aware AI techniques.

Conclusion

Hololight's participation in UNITY-6G builds on its established work in XR streaming over mobile networks. See how Hololight and Deutsche Telekom have already demonstrated stable, low-latency XR streaming over public 5G networks using L4S: Deutsche Telekom and Hololight Enable XR Streaming Beyond Wi-Fi