Opportunities and Challenges for Virtual Reality Streaming over Millimeter-Wave: An Experimental Analysis
This study addresses transmission instability of millimeter-wave (mmWave) VR streaming under mobile and dynamic occlusion conditions. We develop the first experimental 802.11ad testbed supporting controllable motion-induced blockage modeling, empirically revealing critical bottlenecks: severe throughput degradation (>60%) during line-of-sight (LOS) interruptions, non-line-of-sight (NLoS) throughput volatility, and TCP protocol mismatch. To overcome these, we propose a novel TCP parameter self-adaptation framework tailored to mmWave channel characteristics—achieving 35% improvement in streaming stability without modifying the protocol stack. Our work constitutes the first systematic empirical validation of feasibility boundaries and optimization pathways for mmWave-enabled immersive VR wireless delivery. It establishes a reproducible experimental paradigm and practical tuning methodology for low-latency, high-bandwidth extended reality (XR) communications.