New rate control method cuts delay while keeping high 5g speeds
RAPID: Proactive Rate Control for Enabling High Data Rate and Low Latency in 5G Edge Networks
Networking and Internet Architecture
Summary
Many future technologies like virtual reality need wireless connections that are both fast and have almost no delay. Current internet methods that adjust speeds based on lost or slow packets can’t handle these needs well. The authors created RAPID, a new method for private 5G networks that controls data flow by watching the wireless network’s resource use. This helps keep data moving quickly with very low delays. Tests showed RAPID had delays over 50 times lower than common internet methods, with only small drops in total speed.
What this means in practice
- •For 5g network operators: Improve private 5G base station rate control to lower latency and maintain high data rates for interactive applications.
- •For augmented reality developers: Deliver more responsive extended reality experiences over private 5G by using rate control that minimizes delay at the network edge.
Authors
Hamid Hassani, Sonia M. Heemstra de Groot, Ignas G. Niemegeers, Kishor C. Joshi, George Exarchakos
Abstract
Many 6G use cases such as tactile Internet and eXtended reality applications would simultaneously require a high data rate and low latency wireless connectivity.It is increasingly being realized that the current transport protocols relying on packet loss and delay are insufficient to satisfy the data rate and latency requirements of such applications. To address this problem, we propose RAPID, a transport layer solution designed for private 5G edge networks, where the bottleneck is located at the base station. We show that by regulating the send rate to maintain a target physical resource block utilization, we can achieve high data rate, low latency communication. We design a simple yet effective policy that adapts to the dynamic nature of wireless channel conditions. In a multi-UE scenario with two RAPID flows and one TCP Cubic flow, our testbed results show that RAPID flows achieve significant improvements in one-way delay, i.e., 72x and 55x lower compared to TCP Cubic, with negligible packet loss at the cost of modest goodput reductions of 16% and 27%, respectively.