Networking and Cyber Foraging for Mobile Augmented Reality

Abstract

Mobile augmented reality (MAR) applications are gaining popularity due to the wide adoption of mobile and especially wearable devices such as smartglasses. These devices often strike a compromise between mobility, energy efficiency, and performance. On the other hand, MAR applications rely on computationally intensive computer vision algorithms with extreme latency requirements. Cyber-foraging allows resource-constrained devices to leverage the computing power of nearby machines, and has often been proposed as a solution for increasing the computing capabilities of constrained devices. However, this process introduces new constraints in the application, especially in terms of latency and bandwidth. MAR applications are so demanding that current network infrastructures are barely ready for such traffic. Such resource-hungry applications may rapidly saturate future wireless networks such as 5G. As such, developing cyber-foraging solutions for MAR applications requires a delicate balance in network resource usage to ensure seamless user experience. In order to identify the opportunities for further improving the Quality of Experience (QoE) for mobile AR, we break down the end-to-end latency of the pipeline for typical MAR applications and pinpoint the dominating components in the critical path, from the physical transmission to the application. We then derive a set of actions to enhance the possibilities of cyber-foraging, taking into account the specificities of future networking technologies.