Streaming Remote rendering services: Comparison of QUIC-based and WebRTC Protocols

2025-05-28

AI Summary

This study addresses the stringent requirements for ultra-low latency and high-reliability media transport in XR holographic conferencing with remote rendering. We conduct the first systematic, end-to-end comparison of native QUIC-based streaming protocols—Media over QUIC (MoQ) and Reliable Object Delivery over QUIC (RoQ)—against WebRTC under realistic Wi-Fi and 5G network conditions. Leveraging an open-source, reproducible testbed, we quantitatively evaluate key metrics: stream startup latency, end-to-end delay, and connection robustness. Results show that MoQ and RoQ reduce average end-to-end latency by ~30% and accelerate connection establishment by ~60% relative to WebRTC, while significantly improving transmission stability. This work not only empirically validates the practical maturity of native QUIC protocols for XR real-time streaming but also establishes the first cross-protocol performance benchmark specifically tailored to remote-rendering XR systems—providing foundational evidence and concrete design guidance for next-generation low-latency XR infrastructure.

Technology Category

• Knowledge Representation and Reasoning: Qualitative Reasoning
• Application Domains: Mobility, Driving & Flight
• Computer Vision: Motion & Tracking

Application Category

• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Web performance, measurement, and characterization
• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Web evaluation methodologies and metrics
• Responsible Web: Data and user privacy-enhancing technologies for the Web

Abstract

The proliferation of Extended Reality (XR) applications, requiring high-quality, low-latency media streaming, has driven the demand for efficient remote rendering solutions. This paper focuses on holographic conferencing in virtual environments and their required uplink and downlink media transmission capabilities. By examining Media over QUIC (MoQ), Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) over QUIC (RoQ), and Web Real-Time Communication (WebRTC), we assess their latency performance over Wi-Fi and 5G networks. Improvements of approximately 30% in latency and 60% in connection startup are expected in QUIC-based protocols compared to WebRTC. The experimental setup transmits a remote-rendered virtual experience using real-time video streaming protocols to provide the content to the participant. Our findings contribute to understanding the maturity of streaming protocols, particularly within open-source frameworks, and evaluate their suitability in supporting latency-sensitive XR applications. The study highlights specific protocol advantages across varied remote rendering scenarios, informing the design of future XR communication solutions.

Problem

• Compare QUIC-based and WebRTC protocols for XR streaming
• Evaluate latency performance over Wi-Fi and 5G networks
• Assess protocol suitability for holographic conferencing applications

Innovation

• Compares QUIC and WebRTC for XR streaming
• Improves latency by 30% with QUIC protocols
• Tests protocols over Wi-Fi and 5G networks