The data rates of both wired and wireline links have increased relentlessly over the last several decades. Wireless access rates used to trail those for wireline access rates, but of late have started catching up, so much so that they can be viewed as essentially equal. For most applications, including mobile applications, bandwidth availability is not viewed as a serious constraint anymore. 5G is delivering tens of megabits per second to users, and will soon provide more. The next driver of advances in networking is expected to be the need for reliable low latency connectivity, rather than bandwidth alone. These applications include XR (Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and Mixed Reality), wirelessly controlled robots and haptic communications. The latency requirements for such applications vary from tens of milliseconds down to the sub-millisecond range. While the latency requirements for these applications can be met by carefully engineered wired and wireless communications, typically in controlled indoor environments, it is still a challenge to provide them over cellular networks. This talk will focus on the emerging challenge of providing reliable low latency broadband communications over cellular networks.
IEEE HPSR Keynote: Latency is the new Bandwidth
