In a new insight paper commissioned by InterDigital, CCS Insights details why energy efficiency is increasingly important in the video and media ecosystem, and introduces InterDigital’s cutting edge Pixel Value Reduction technology as an exciting solution to reduce energy consumption and extend watch time, enabling sustainability at scale across billions of devices and displays.

Enabling Energy-Aware Display Technology in a Sustainable World

“Bridge to 6G: Spotlight on 3GPP Release 20”

, authored by ABI Research and commissioned by InterDigital, explores how 3GPP Release 20 serves as the pivotal link between 5G-Advanced and the next-generation 6G ecosystem. With 5G reaching maturity across global markets, the document highlights the industry’s transition toward 6G, emphasizing lessons learned from 5G’s fragmented rollout and the need for simplified, energy-efficient, and AI-native network architectures.

The paper outlines the standardization timeline, positioning Release 20 (2025–2027) as a dual-phase milestone that completes 5G-Advanced specifications while launching coordinated studies for 6G.

Release 20 also advances critical 5G-Advanced features, including enhanced system architecture, AI/ML integration in the air interface, energy-aware service delivery, post-quantum security studies, and foundational work for “Sensing-as-a-Service.” These developments lay the groundwork for new service domains for 6G, such as immersive XR, autonomous systems, and AI-driven IoT.

Bridge to 6G: Spotlight on 3GPP Release 20

As live sports migrates from traditional broadcast to digital platforms, streaming is redefining how leagues, networks, and tech providers engage audiences and generate revenue. This transition brings both opportunity and complexity—from fragmented rights and shifting viewer expectations to significant technical demands around latency, scalability, and quality.

This research explores the business and technology challenges of streaming live sports and outlines strategic insights for navigating this high-stakes, rapidly evolving landscape.

How fragmented sports rights and evolving consumer habits are reshaping content strategy.

The role of sports in driving SVOD acquisition and retention—and the risks of churn.

Key technical challenges in live sports streaming, including latency, buffering, and quality at scale.

The future of sports streaming infrastructure, from advanced codecs to interactive, personalized experiences.


Streaming Live Sports: Where Opportunity Meets Complexity

Media over Wireless: Networks for Ubiquitous Video

 explores the escalating demands and trends around consumer behavior for video and immersive experiences over wireless networks. XR applications are placing new demands on wireless networks, which, in their current form, will be unable to handle the next generation of immersive entertainment.

Today, demand for entertainment over wireless is voracious, whereby:

<ul>
<li>Video accounts for 69% of all data traffic over the internet</li>
<li>On smartphones, 74% of data consumption is video, driven by social media clips, embedded video, and streaming platforms</li>
<li>26% of consumers watch subscription services (e.g. Netflix, Prime Video) on their smartphone, compared to 41% on TVs</li>
<li>By the end of 2024, mobile gaming revenues reached $85 billion</li>
</ul>

The XR market is growing rapidly, and by 2031, it is expected that the number of XR devices shipped will increase 4x over 2025 levels, to reach 83 million units globally

Without significant upgrades to the network, the market risks facing stalled adoption of immersive devices, especially given that 40% of consumers today report dissatisfaction with network performance, where video demands are not as intensive as XR. 5G-Advanced and forthcoming 6G architectures will be essential to unlocking the full potential of immersive and XR content.

Media Over Wireless:  Networks for Ubiquitous Video

A global shift in the standard of living has caused significant growth in greenhouse carbon emissions (GHG), with the TV and video streaming industry accounting for 4% of total global emissions—double that of the aviation industry, which stands at 2%. While the TV and video industry has historically been seen as a relatively low-carbon emitter, today’s increasingly fragmented service and delivery ecosystem is driving rapid growth in industry emissions.

In this whitepaper, we present original research on the state of video and media sustainability, examine the trends driving industry emissions, and highlight the strategies that leading enterprises are leveraging to meet short- and long-term sustainability objectives.

Access original research and insights into the state of sustainability in video entertainment, from emissions trends to consumption-mitigating technologies.

Spotlight on Sustainability: Towards a greener TV and video value chain

Our modes of communication are evolving to empower immersive content and increasingly incorporate haptics, or the sense of touch, into our connected experiences. This new modality extends our sensory engagement beyond our sight and hearing and unlocks an opportunity to add more depth and sense of immersion within connected communications, experiences, and services.

At the IEEE World Haptics conference in 2011, it was predicted that advanced tactile capabilities would be generally available by 2020, anticipating that users would not only touch and manipulate what they saw on screens, but also feel shape, texture, and softness. But it takes time for organisations to coalesce around practical mechanisms, for technologies to evolve, and for standardised approaches to be agreed; so today we have the foundations in place.

Currently, haptics exist in multiple form-factors and disparate device segments, such as smartphones and wearables. The experience they provide today is often an enhancement to the content, not fully immersive, yet this position is destined to change as standards for haptics are ratified and published. In XR, haptics provide an opportunity to create realistic scenarios where the user can utilise all their senses to boost their virtual presence. In the near future, it should be feasible to broadcast or stream fully immersive experiences using existing protocols and network infrastructure, to products incorporating technologies that precisely replicate tactile and sensory experiences.

This paper introduces the wide ecosystem of innovators, device makers, and content creators, all of whom must collaborate to reveal the pathway towards haptic-enhanced content, while highlighting the important work within standards to understand and support the delivery of immersive XR and haptic-enhanced content across devices worldwide.

Haptics: The next modality in immersive entertainment

5G has excelled in the consumer domain and 5G-Advanced is now being designed with enterprise-specific features that will allow enterprise success. These include Reduced Capability (RedCap), ambient Internet of Things (IoT), network improvements for Augmented Reality (AR)/ Virtual Reality (VR), more use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) throughout the network, and many new features. 5G-Advanced, and even parts of foundational 5G, are being considered for the next wave of innovation to be included in 6G.

As our previous whitepaper discussed, the biggest priority for 5G-Advanced is to monetize existing 5G networks beyond the consumer domain and start creating large-scale opportunities in the enterprise space for mobile operators and infrastructure vendors. Releases 15, 16, and 17 introduced, improved and finalized several new enterprise-specific features, including network slicing, integration of private and public networks (including Public Network Integrated – Non-Public Networks (PNI-NPNs)), Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) support, Sidelink, enhanced positioning, and even use cases or applications specific to each enterprise vertical. This means that mobile operators are now familiar with the capabilities of enterprise 5G, and the ecosystem is preparing to create devices and applications that utilize the new standard.

However, for all of these to truly become the foundation for 6G, it is necessary to align 6G technology development with the most relevant future vision, in this case IMT-2030 as set by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

Driving 5G-Advanced to 6G

Since the standard was finalised a decade ago, HEVC has been on a slow but steady journey to become one of the leading video codecs. HEVC’s adoption may not have been as rapid as the developers of the codec originally anticipated. Nevertheless, there is evidence that adoption of the codec is now expanding, partly due to the news last year that Google had added native support for HEVC video decoding in its Chrome web browser, mirroring Apple’s continued support for HEVC in Safari.

This adoption has provided a considerable impetus to HEVC and its prospects of becoming the first choice for developers and content creators. Indeed, this decision convinced other browser developers to also follow a similar path. But beyond Google’s endorsement, one area of significant growth and interest in the implementation of HEVC is within the streaming industry. The largest video streaming services depend on advanced video compression to deliver ever higher quality content to consumers as efficiently as possible. HEVC’s ability to support ultra-high definition video means that it is particularly well placed to encode premium content on services from providers including Netflix, Disney, Amazon, Apple, Paramount and Warner Bros.

Commissioned by InterDigital, researched and written by Futuresource Consulting, this white paper analyses the reach of HEVC within consumer devices, how the codec is enabling higher quality for subscribers, examines HEVC’s rise amongst the streaming giants, and explores what’s next for codecs within the rapidly evolving delivery of video content.

Spotlight on HEVC: The codec of choice for the video streaming industry

5G has reached significant commercial and technical milestones. However, so far, its focus remains primarily on Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) and fixed wireless applications. As per the IMT-2020 vision, 5G should be oriented toward a variety of new applications and business prospects, going beyond just mobile broadband. It is noteworthy that the enterprise sector has not fully tapped into the existing 5G offerings, and mobile operators find it challenging to introduce innovative use cases for consumers, aside from offering faster data speeds.

This paper from InterDigital and ABI Research highlights the major accomplishments of 5G to date, shedding light on why this latest network generation has not yet realized its potential in unlocking new business avenues, which were inaccessible to its predecessors in both the consumer and enterprise sectors. It elaborates how 5G-Advanced, the next phase in the journey of this generation, is building the foundation for enterprise applications and potentially leaving the field open for 6G to drive the Industry 4.0 revolution. The paper also includes an overview of ABI Research’s insights into 5G-Advanced capabilities, market potential, and the fresh business paradigms it could unveil in both consumer and business domains.

The State of 5G Advanced: Empowering New Verticals and Industries

Extended Reality (XR) is a broad term encapsulating a spectrum of Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and Mixed Reality (MR) experiences that capture audio, video, haptic, and kinesthetic data into one scene representation to seamlessly blend interactions in the virtual and physical world. Whether it be AR leveraging transparent displays for seamless data visualization, VR entirely replacing physical with virtual, or MR (mixed reality) somewhere in between, XR has increasingly seen adoption across markets.

This paper will outline the foundational technologies and metrics that define XR experiences, introduce the current standards study items and research resources dedicated to enabling XR, and highlight some of the challenges that will define the next stage of innovation and standardization for XR-enabled immersive experiences.

Defining the XR Experience: Enabling the Immersivity Ecosystem

Video codecs play an integral, yet often underappreciated, role in digital video. Since the 1980s, they have remained a crucial but sometimes overlooked element of the software stack. The most successful persist in the market for a long time, enjoying a lifespan in excess of 20, or even 30, years.

Video compression and codecs are therefore critical components that ensure the information and experiences we all desire can be delivered crisply, efficiently, and resourcefully. Commissioned by InterDigital, researched and written by Futuresource Consulting, this paper explores the landscape of video compression technology, touching upon the history of video coding standards, examining the advantages that today’s codecs present for industries and experiences powered by video, and considers the potential future of video coding technology.

AdobeStock_1341729427.jpg

The State of Video Codecs: Evolution of Compression in a Video-First Economy

What defines a good versus a bad sensory experience –particularly if you want to charge a premium for it? That’s a difficult question when physical, digital and virtual worlds merge. It depends on a human’s subjective perceptions as well as a network’s capabilities.

Human-centered quality metrics are urgently needed to help monetize future 6G services, argues Omdia’s 6G study with InterDigital, which included user testing conducted at Carnegie Mellon University’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute. All 6G’s market stakeholders must collaborate to create a new sensory language that defines service experiences. The clock is ticking: experiential factors already influence consumers and enterprises’ digital choices today.

Experience The Future of 6G: A New Direction for Telecom

5G and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are the breakthrough technologies of this decade. The combination of these technologies will serve as a catalyst to many other emerging areas and will pave the way for a variety of new business opportunities in the consumer and enterprise segments, otherwise not possible with existing technologies.

By design, 5G should be more than just an access technology evolution to Long- Term Evolution (LTE), intended for extending network capacity and lowering latency. Thanks to network slicing and service orchestration capabilities, 5G and network transformation will lay the foundation for building intelligent, secure, and reliable infrastructure. 5G will create a fabric of processing capabilities at the edge of the network, coupled with high bandwidth and reliable low-latency connectivity. The requirement for such features will also increase exponentially when enterprise vertical use cases become mainstream, and mobile service providers will need to adapt their networks in ways they cannot currently conceive.

AI is the Key for 5G Success

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the earth’s atmosphere have grown exponentially since the 1950s leading to damaging ecological, physical and health impacts worldwide. Seven of these GHGs contribute directly towards climate change: they include carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) – which arguably are the most well-known – alongside hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), nitrous oxide (N2O), hexafluoride (SF6), and nitrogen trifluoride (NF3). Significant emissions of CO2 started during the industrial revolution, when industry demand increased for substantial quantities of non-renewable energy sources, primarily fossil fuels including coal, and later oil and natural gas. The increase in the burning of hydrocarbons for powering industry and, today, generating electricity to support our global energy requirements, has contributed towards increasing CO2 emissions. Since 1750, it is estimated that human activities have emitted over 1,680 gigatonnes of CO2 globally. More alarmingly, due to the recent rapid expansion in population and energy use per capita, more CO2 has been generated during the last 30 years than in the entire 240 years prior to that. Scientists and activists have told of the consequences if action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is not forthcoming. And today, the global energy crisis is forcing governments, industries, and consumers to reconsider our behaviour towards energy generation and use, galvanising actions towards becoming more environmentally sustainable.

Sustainability in Video Entertainment: 2022 Industry Update

5G is now a mainstream technology and a global success with nearly 1 billion subscribers already enjoying the high speeds the new generation offers. Previous generations created the applications and the hunger for high-speed connectivity on the go, and 5G is building on those to deliver high-quality, faster, and more consistent connections. There are now hundreds of smartphones and devices that support 5G, hundreds of mobile operators have switched it on, and it is becoming available to the mainstream audience, not just high-tech premium subscribers. 5G is now giving us a glimpse of what future generations will bring and what new types of applications and use cases it will enable, in both consumer and enterprise domains.

State of 5G Report: Enabling The Boundless Generation

5G networks will become commonplace within the next five years, expected to deliver on multiple promises of gigabit speeds, ultra-low latency, higher reliability and improved density in device connectivity.

Going far beyond traditional communications and Internet connectivity on smartphones, 5G offers the potential for entirely new applications, many of which would be considered impossible using previous generations of mobile networking technology.

Real-time capabilities coupled with universal mobility are key elements here to deliver new applications. Time-critical services are clearly an area of focus, however the lower latency present in 5G networks is highly likely to influence the form-factor of consumer devices, enabling data processing that would ordinarily happen on the edge, on the devices themselves, to instead be offloaded to servers in the cloud.

The higher bandwidth available over 5G will undoubtedly unlock higher resolution video services and new forms of media, such as volumetric content. 5G will also enable new audio-visual experiences for audiences at live events and for virtual participants.

In this research, compiled by Futuresource Consulting and commissioned by InterDigital, we examine the roll out of 5G networks worldwide and consumer uptake of 5G services, investigate how both existing and new forms of audio-visual products might harness the advances in 5G networking technology, and consider the potential intersect between 5G and new video coding standards.

Video over 5G: New networks, new possibilities

Cellular technology evolution across multiple generations has consistently sustained the global economic growth. Each of these generations has uniquely contributed to boosting the world Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by addressing key industry pain-points and enabling new business opportunities not possible with previous generation networks. 6G will not be an exception here.

This paper will elaborate on some potential market opportunities 6G will enable, notably the build-up towards the metaverse. Most importantly, it will define the 6G vision and the three types of convergence this vision will encapsulate, namely:

The communications and computing convergence referred to as 6G native intelligence in this paper.

The telecommunications convergence whereby 6G becomes the network of networks bringing many access technologies together to enable ubiquitous coverage around the globe.

The convergence between virtual and physical spaces as the industry cruises its way towards the metaverse. Not only this could enable new experiences and use-cases, but it could also help in reducing the risks attached to operating businesses, infrastructures, and the planning of new products and services.

6G: The Network of Technology Convergence

AI will become an essential part of our lives in the next few years, with the promise of delivering super-intelligent computers that exceed human analytical abilities. This is, however, several years away; indeed, the industry has only just embarked upon understanding what’s possible.

Arguably the hype surrounding AI thus far has meant that the technology is being squeezed into everything: “AI is the answer… now, what was the question?” The situation is changing, as companies begin to understand the beneficial effects of AI and how it maps to specific applications.

Executed with efficacy and respect, AI promises to enable far more efficient solutions to complex problems; certainly, AI techniques will become an intrinsic element in most large systems. Meanwhile, there are ethical questions surrounding AI: there is nervousness over what happens if it works and, conversely, deep-rooted concerns over what transpires if it doesn't work. Machine learning offers plenty of scope for both outcomes, given the challenges of AI bias on one hand and the mysterious nature of machine learned models on the other.

In this white paper, commissioned by InterDigital, Futuresource examines the status of machine learning and artificial intelligence with emphasis on applications across the video supply chain. We investigate the issues surrounding the broad uses of AI across segments of the media industry and highlight several examples of how the discipline is employed today and how it promises to develop in future.

AI and Machine Learning in the Video Industry: New opportunities for the entertainment sector

The topic of sustainability has never been higher on the societal agenda than it is today. On one hand, the United Nation’s (UN) 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all of its 195 member states in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for long-term peace and prosperity around the world. On the other hand, extreme flooding, droughts, and hurricanes continue to showcase the devastating effects of global warming and the subsequent climate change.

5G Sustainability

Open radio access network (Open RAN) technology has emerged as an important focus for the mobile industry over the past 18 months. Its rapid rise to prominence reflects strong interest from many mobile carriers seeking to reduce their reliance on a very small number of traditional technology suppliers and to improve the economics of network roll-out.

As attention has turned to Open RAN infrastructure technology, non-traditional suppliers such as Mavenir, Parallel Wireless and Altiostar have eyed a potentially lucrative new market, announcing fledgling but significant partnerships with a range of mobile carriers that raise questions about the competitive position of established players like Nokia and Ericsson.

Trade restrictions placed on Huawei by some national governments have further reduced the choice of 5G network equipment suppliers, thrusting Open RAN into the political spotlight. Although this limited choice has hindered 5G deployment in several markets, it has also promoted new thinking about how to support national communications infrastructure, now more widely appreciated as a social and economic utility in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. As questions about who builds telecom networks, how and for whom surface amid an escalating international battle for technology leadership, Open RAN has suddenly become a surprising topic of political debate.

But Open RAN's challenges stretch beyond the political arena. Dissenters point to the greater complexity of incorporating an unproven technology platform that could take years to establish standards and product maturity. Cost and security pose additional concerns. The promise of Open RAN might be attractive, but the mobile industry needs to be wary of falling into another hype trap.

This report discusses reasons why Open RAN is generating huge excitement and whether the mobile industry is pinning too many hopes too soon on a nascent technology. It explores contrasting viewpoints from mobile carriers and network suppliers, and focuses on a range of political, commercial and technological tensions that will ultimately determine its long-term success.

Open RAN: The Long Journey from Supporting Act to Lead Role

In total, new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things will save approaching 1.8 PWh of electricity in 2030, and an additional 3.5 PWh of (hydrocarbon) fuel use, resulting in total savings of 5.3 PWh of energy. Offset against this benefit is 653TWh of electricity consumption required to power solutions deployed using new technologies.

For comparison, the total electricity consumption of the global ICT industry is forecast to increase to around 8 PWh by 2030 , meaning that together new technologies will generate energy savings equal to around 58% of the total power consumption of the ICT industry.

The vast bulk of the savings are related to IoT-enabled applications, which together account for in excess of 95% of both electricity and fuel saved. This is due to the fact that IoT represents the interface of new technological environments to the 'real world', and it is in the real world where most energy is used and most savings can be made. The most impactful IoT applications include:

A range of smart grid applications (including Electricity Smart Meters, Grid Operations, and Generation) together accounting for approaching 1.4 PWh of electricity savings in 2030.

Heating, Ventilation & Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems accounting for approaching 130 TWh of electricity savings in 2030.

Road Fleet Management, accounting for around 1.25 PWh of fuel savings in 2030.

Road Traffic Monitoring & Control, accounting for around 290 TWh of fuel savings in 2030.

Sustainability In New And Emerging Technologies

Sustainability and the impact of energy consumption on the climate are becoming urgent issues for the wireless industry. To assess how energy considerations will affect mobile networks and whether emerging technologies can help to minimise the industry’s energy footprint, Mobile World Live conducted an international online survey of mobile industry professionals.

The results show that most companies in the mobile industry are serious about setting energy reduction targets, but the continued growth in data traffic and subscribers is likely to mean that energy consumption will become a limiting factor in network deployments in the near future. The survey also indicates that the industry is generally positive about the potential for network virtualization and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to help reduce energy consumption, but much less certain about the energy impact of edge deployments.

How Sustainable Are Our Mobile Networks?

The world has witnessed significant change since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. Life expectancy has more than doubled; travel across the planet can happen in less than a day; loved ones can be reached via a video screen and vast quantities of information can be accessed at the touch of a button. But as our quality of life, and the science and technology that has facilitated this, has improved, so too has our impact on the earth’s biosphere become more pronounced. Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the earth’s atmosphere – seven of which contribute to climate change, including carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4,), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), hexafluoride (SF6), and nitrogen trifluoride (NF3) – have grown exponentially since the 1970s leading to a range of pernicious ecological, physical and health impacts.

For decades, scientists and activists have warned of the dire consequences awaiting the world if action to reduce GHG emissions is not taken. Catalysed by a growing number of extreme weather events alongside a strong wave of environmental activism, the majority of consumers, industries and governments have come to the consensus that action towards becoming environmentally sustainable must be taken.

The Sustainable Future of Video Entertainment

The mobile telecommunications industry is one of the richest business sectors in recent times. With 5.3 billion users and US$1.38 trillion service revenues, ABI Research estimates that the sector contributed 5.2% to the world’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2019. Indeed, each mobile network generation, including 2G, 3G, and 4G, has contributed massively to boosting demand for mobile services and creating business opportunities for new use cases.

Environmentally Sustainable 5G Deployment

The immense video streaming market is already laying the groundwork for high-volume, high-bandwidth content potential, so the onset of cloud gaming excitement was not a surprise. The gaming market is responsible for more than US$150 billion in revenue overall. Any new service or technology that can tap into even a sliver of that revenue is promising.

Cloud Gaming: Enabling A Next Generation Gaming and Streaming Paradigm

5G will go beyond today’s consumer-oriented enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) services to enable use cases for vertical industries that will leverage Massive Machine-type Communication (MMTC) and UltraReliable LowLatency Communication (URLLC) applications. To understand the size and scope of the opportunity for 5G in industrial applications, Mobile World Live (MWL) conducted an online survey of 345 people from mobile industry and vertical enterprise sectors.

The results confirm the industry’s general enthusiasm and high expectations for 5G industrial applications to drive growth and reveal that the services and business models are in an early stage of development. Industrial 5G activity is expected to pick up over the next two years, and the first sectors to benefit will most likely be automotive, manufacturing, and media. But concerns remain today about the business case and benefits of 5G as well as the readiness of standards.

Great Expectations: Sizing the Opportunity for 5G in Vertical Industries

Streaming media continues to reach more areas of consumers’ daily lives and as these markets mature attention begins shifting to new opportunities; opportunities that bring additional value, but also engender new technical hurdles and challenges. This white paper explores the impacts of future streaming media trends and the technical considerations necessary to accommodate these advancements, including business models, streaming protocols, connectivity, and end-user devices. Streaming video remains at the forefront but this facet of the market is emphasizing more than just ever-increasing data traffic.

Video services, for example, are increasingly pushing live/linear content, which brings heightened attention to other streaming traits like latency and in time degrees of immersion. Updates to streaming protocols (e.g. tuned/short segment HLS/DASH) and new codecs (e.g. AV1, H.266) are part of the ongoing and future equation to reach increasing levels of video quality and viewing experiences, but 5G stands as a key technology enabler that will help alleviate potential bottlenecks and offer new levels of performance (e.g. lower latencies and higher data rates). Other technologies like augmented/virtual reality and natural communications will present new opportunities from social engagements to workplace collaboration and targeted advertising. As more content, services and compute reach the cloud and get pushed to the edge other industries will see paradigm shifts – gaming, for example, will see further developments in cloud gaming.

The opportunities presented in this paper will develop over time, but streaming media is on a trajectory that will increasingly push the data boundaries – eventually surpassing the ability (or economic viability) to continue overprovisioning within the data networks. This creates both a need and an opportunity to address these hurdles by gaining efficiencies through edge computing, multicasting, and enlisting more efficient codecs. Ultimately, the industry needs to view these challenges through a new lens that looks to other areas outside of overprovisioning alone in order to yield the most efficient operations and maximization of value.

Streaming Media Report

The automotive domain is in transition from a driver focus towards autonomous-system-based mobility. This transition is being taken even further with the development of cooperative driving, where (semi) autonomous vehicles (AVs) are cooperating in executing various driving functions.

With the increase in IT-based functions in autonomous and cooperative driving, a joint approach is needed to keep future vehicles safe and secure. Cooperative driving is based on ad-hoc networks of autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles that can perform collaborative driving functions. Participating vehicles may travel very closely together safely and at high speeds.

There are various technologies that enable the transition to autonomous-system-based mobility, resulting in highly connected interdependent systems. Whereas before it was sufficient to have a safe and secure vehicle, now with increased cooperative functionality it becomes paramount to be able to determine the security and safety state of vehicles in these cooperative functions.

The security and safety requirements vary depending on the vehicle-related application and required connectivity. In this whitepaper, we focus on applications that demand both security and safety. With vehicles becoming more and more connected to broaden the possibilities in autonomous and collaborative driving, this trend also gives rise to specific challenges related to this connectedness. In this whitepaper, we focus on two areas, with each having its own challenges.

The first is the objective of keeping autonomous vehicles safe and secure. The main challenge in establishing this is:

How can the system determine if it is in a state where it is safe and secure to engage an autonomous function?

The second is establishing safe and secure collaborative driving and keeping that collaboration safe. Challenges to achieve this include:

How can the trustworthiness/reliability of sensor information from other collaboration vehicles be identified?

How can it be determined that the other systems are in a state where it is safe to engage in collaborative driving configurations?

In this white paper we explore these challenges, leading to the general conclusion that we believe that a negotiation of security and safety functions between vehicles in cooperative driving functions is necessary to create a system that is future proof. It is inevitable that over time, vehicle capabilities will change, security capabilities will change, and new systems and solutions will be designed. A robust negotiation mechanism that takes this into account is therefore necessary in order to be able to take advantage of the safety and security capabilities of newer vehicles.

Cybersecurity and Functional Safety in Cooperative Driving

The arrival of YouTube in 2005, followed by Apple’s first iPhone in 2007, and Google’s Android platform in 2008, serves as the preamble to what has become a two-screen video market. A decade and a half might seem like a long period of time, but put into context of television’s history, it is a remarkably short timeframe. Color TVs, for example, arrived in 1953, and it wasn’t until the late 1990s before HDTVs hit the market. Viewing behavior itself had remained largely unchanged for decades, where consumption of video largely occurred in designated areas of the house, quite often as a shared viewing experience among household members. Video sources were comparatively limited and curated, resulting in a generally homogenous viewing experience.

Evolution of Mobile Video

The fifth generation of mobile networks, commonly known as 5G, holds a lot of promise. Historically, 2G brought us mobile voice, while 3G introduced us to mobile data. 4G and LTE enabled usable mobile broadband services and now 5G is supposed to unlock further value from our mobile networks with faster broadband data speeds and lower latency.

Software-Defined and Cloud-Native Foundations for 5G Networks

The global economy is experiencing rapid changes during the first years of the 21st century, with new technologies, concepts, and behaviors now changing the way we live and work. Blockchain, self-driving cars, Artificial Intelligence, and machine learning, Three-Dimensional (3D) printing, and Augmented Reality (AR) are just a few examples of technologies that hold the potential to create new markets and disrupt legacy businesses. At the same time, the world is experiencing increasing urbanization, with large cities continuing to act as centers of economic, technical, cultural, and social growth.

5G Urban Deployment: Debunking the Capex Myth and Unlocking New Growth

Light Reading, Heavy Reading, and ATIS are excited to present the results of a study we executed in collaboration with our sponsors. We joined forces to explore the key factors that will empower the future network-enabled communications and cloud markets. Our survey examined the critical factors, both technological and market-related (new business models and market structures), driving theindustry into the next decade. It covered the core technologies underpinning the future roadmap of the communications industry that communications service provider (CSP) decision makers are most interested in understanding, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and 5/6G mobile.

Future Networking Survey Report

As operators prepare for 5G service launch around the globe, the industry has a reasonable view of how the initial generation of 5G products and services will look and is moving forward with confidence. What’s still unknown is just how great will be 5G’s global impact. According to a recent Heavy Reading Operator Survey, there are striking differences between the U.S. and Rest-of-World (RoW) when it comes to 5G expectations. A majority (52%) of U.S. respondents believe that “faster end-user speeds” will be the biggest benefit over the next five years, while 41% of RoW respondents identified “new services and eco-system expansion” as being the primary commercial benefit over the same timeframe. Most agree that over a five-year view (2018-2023), there will be a wholesale transition to 5G, with 71% of respondents believing that 5G will be a mass-market service by this time.

Read this white paper to gain insights into the near-term and evolving operator outlook for 5G network deployment and service innovation.

5G Deployment & Service Strategies: An Operator Survey

To research the future of the Internet of Things (IoT), Mobile World Live conducted an online survey of 393 people in the mobile industry – one of the largest IoT surveys to date - on behalf of InterDigital. The survey yielded a wealth of data, some of it confirming views and some challenging accepted views. That fragmentation and interoperability is a major issue is no surprise, and the industry is turning to four clear early standards leaders to provide a foundation. Perhaps in the same vein, and despite early indications that much of the IoT would be non-cellular, the ease of use and global nature of cellular is galvanizing attention. Finally, and surprisingly given the early talk of the tremendous benefits of IoT to primarily industrial economies, global respondents look to America as the early leader.

Mobile and the Internet of Things: Unanimity Around Fragmentation, Surprises in Connectivity and Geography

Originally conducted in the Spring of 2018, The TelecomTV 5

survey highlights to what extent CSP/telco opinions depart from those of Network Equipment Providers (NEPs) and software vendors. The results underline major findings found by splitting respondents into two groups to compare side-by-side.

TelecomTV's 2018 5G Evolved and Defined Survey

The Mobile Operator Innovation Map showcases how the world’s top operators are fostering, investing in and supporting innovation. After surveying and researching top operators from across the globe, we classified operator innovation efforts into four categories. Some operators are particularly strong in research, whilst others have great internal innovation cultures. Some are just great innovation allrounders

Mapping Global Mobile Operator Innovation

Check out this report detailing the State of Art (SoA) of optical hardware currently used in the field of 3D display technology, as well as emerging optical hardware technologies that feature Light Field (LF) and Holographic techniques.

Cutting Edge 3D Display Technology Optical Hardware

Augmented Reality (AR) is a concept and a set of technologies for merging of real and virtual elements to produce new visualizations – typically a video – where physical and digital objects co-exist and interact in real time. Most AR applications support real-time interaction with content (AR scene with virtual objects) which has been produced in advance or offline. In many cases, for example in ad hoc remote guidance applications, AR interaction over a network is required. AR interaction over a network means, for example, adding virtual objects into a video feed captured in a remote location. AR interaction over networks includes solutions for both: 1) real-time situations, where users are simultaneously interacting with each other and with AR content, and 2) off-line situations, where the users are not simultaneously interacting with each other, but still want to produce or share AR content over a network. Support for remote AR interaction needs to also be available when real-time and offline sessions are following or alternating with each other. This requires that the AR content be produced, stored, and updated seamlessly in successive sessions.

Remote Augmentation in Multipoint Telepresence

Over the last few years, we watched head-worn virtual and augmented reality devices move from research laboratories to store shelves as the newest platform enabling novel virtual experiences. The big promise of emerging mixed reality (MR) technology is a far deeper immersion into imaginary worlds than is possible with the flat 2D screens we currently use to consume movies, TV shows and computer games. Increased immersion comes from the fact that with MR, viewers feel completely surrounded by the alternative reality – they’re not merely looking at a flat 2D projection on a screen from a single fixed viewpoint. To create an increased level of immersion, MR content needs to look and behave realistically, as if the user is part of the virtual environment even though it only really exists as digital information in a computer’s memory.

In this white paper, Innovation Partners introduce key terms and technical aspects associated with free viewpoint control for MR content; limitations that are hindering production, distribution and consumption of immersive MR content; and, at the end, introduce solutions that address these shortcomings in novel ways.

Moving Towards Next Level Immersion with Mixed Reality

In order for network slicing to deliver on its promise as an effective tool to generate new revenues and profitability, new business models must match the dynamic technical and operational changes that it brings. Significant progress is being made in demonstrations and trials, as highlighted in this report and the accompanying RCR Wireless Webinar with Strategy Analytics, InterDigital and BT, yet more remains to be done.

What should operators and vendors do in 2018 to prepare for network slicing as they move toward commercial 5G deployments?

Strategy Analytics and thought leaders from InterDigital, Intel and operator participant BT outline a call to action to advance dynamic E2E 5G network slicing and ensure it delivers on the promise of 5G.

Network Slicing the Key that Unlocks 5G Revenue Potential - Where 5G Meets SDN / NFV

Smart city technologies could save enterprises, governments and citizens globally over US $5 trillion annually by 2022. This is the conclusion reached by ABI Research in this new white paper, which analyzes the scope for cost savings and efficiency as a driver for smart city deployments, smart technologies and the IoT.

ABI Research: Smart Cities and Cost Savings

Recently, the Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE® announced its winners. We caught up with Ed Hepler, ex-InterDigital engineer and hardware development lead of the winning bootstrap operation, Final Frontier Medical Devices, after the winning announcement in this CREATORS sit-down.

Ed Hepler: Winner of the Qualcomm Tricorder X-Prize

It takes someone special to look at the island of Manhattan – possibly the most transformed, altered landscape on earth – and see the beaver dams, streams, marshes, and rolling hills that it once was... and want to bring that back to life. That someone special is Dr. Eric Sanderson, the originator of the Mannahatta project, now called the Welikia project. Discover how the project uses advanced technology and mapping to re-create the island of Manhattan, and subsequently the greater New York City area, prior to the arrival of Henry Hundson in 1609.

Eric Sanderson: Wildlife Conservation Society

Discover how Ph.D. candidate at the University of Bristol, Dulce Rodriguez, turned her interest in how technology impacts society into a full-blown research project that aims to create a blended intergenerational learning environment.

Dulce Rodriguez: Telecommunications Systems Engineer

With virtual reality (VR), the goal is to create experiences in which the user can be completely immersed; an alternative reality produced by a computer simulation and displayed to the user as a completely synthetic view generated by computer graphics. In both VR and AR, the reality that the physical environment has such a tight relationship with the experience sets new challenges for content production and application design. One solution to improve the relationship between the physical and virtual is to adjust virtual experiences to the physical environment, using the environment as a building block for content creation. In this paper, Innovation Partners discusses some of these approaches and provides examples of recent solutions developed in these areas.

From Geometry to Content and Content for Geometry

Despite the relatively recent commercial availability of consumer devices, various market forecasts are expecting a rapid increase in the number of users and the market value of augmented reality (AR) content in the coming years. When it comes to media consumption, the quality of the experience is the major driving factor for success, as seen in the popular mobile gaming sensation from Niantic, Pokémon Go. With future AR developments, the realism of the content will be a vital factor in determining overall experience quality; this white paper showcases key aspects of realism in the context of AR and introduces related solutions developed through InterDigital's Innovation Partners open innovation initiative.

Realism in Augmented Reality

MEC and other edge computing initiatives address the need to place processing and storage where appropriate, whether a central location or the network’s edge, depending on factors such as applications, traffic type, network conditions, subscriber profile, and operator’s preference. In this InterDigital sponsored report, RCRWireless explores the evolution of the edge’s role in fixed and mobile networks and how it may impact network optimization, value-chain roles and relationships, business models, usage models and, ultimately, the subscriber experience.

Power at the edge: Processing and storage move from the central core to the network edge

While the IoT market in general was slow to capture the public's imagination prior to 2017, one area where IoT is blooming is in the smart city and smart building industry; mass rollouts of IoT in an industrial setting, including urban environments and business hubs, are beginning to garner success. This InterDigital-sponsored white paper dives into the opportunities that smart buildings and other smart cities infrastructure projects offer for telcos and the challenges they face in pursuing such industrial IoT deployments.

Smart Cities: What are the opportunities and threats for telcos?

In winter 2016, a global survey with nearly 1,000 respondents uncovered significant understanding of the issues facing the wider deployment and monetization of connected cars, along with significant enthusiasm for connected car technologies and services in general and autonomous driving. This white paper outlines the results of the survey, as well as some challenges to connected car adoption and the path to greater automation, and ultimately, autonomous driving.

Connected Cars: From Here to Autonomy

Within the next two decades, it is predicted that every person, industry, and service provider will be using 5G systems. The fifth generation wireless standard is expected to underpin new technology deployments as well as future technologies that at this time can only be imagined. This paper, an update on TIA's previous 2015 5G Operator Survey, provides valuable insight into the network operators' view of the 5G revolution and presents important findings about usage in the near future.

5G Operator Survey 2017

Jim Nolan shares his views on InterDigital’s IoT solutions and ambitions for growth with Emil Berthelsen, the principal analyst at Machina Research in this IoT Now Magazine feature.

Interview: Open architecture and data and services federation required to achieve the true potential of the IoT

As the "internet of things" takes off, companies have a wide range of wireless technologies from which to choose and a number of use cases that make up the IoT. This white paper from RCR Wireless explores some of the challenges related to testing the IoT, as well as a market status update on expected IoT growth and testing trends seen in IoT development.

Testing the internet of things: making the IoT work

Today's networks have an atomic, discrete architecture, but as technology develops and more users and devices become a part of the equation, they are evolving into more user-centric and pervasive networks. Senza Fili and RCR Wireless come together to present this white paper on why densifying networks is a growing need and how we can optimize them to accommodate major traffic growth.

Massively densified networks -- Why we need them and how we can build them

MEC is a foundational network architecture concept, which will help 5G networks live up to their potential as “living networks”, while delivering significant capability gains required for IoT, enhanced mobile broadband, virtual reality, self-driving vehicles, and more. This e-book will review key aspects of MEC architecture and answer some common questions about considerations for the future.

What the MEC? An Architecture for 5G

Check out this free report, published by Telecoms.com Intelligence and co-sponsored by InterDigital and Mitel, that analyzes and presents the findings of an in-depth questionnaire answered by over 800 members of the telecoms industry involved with 5G today.

Road to 5G Outlook 2016

With the recent finish of the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, there is huge interest in how the 2018 Winter Olympics and 2020 Summer Games will be the launchpad for the latest generation of mobile technology – 5G. A new whitepaper from InterDigital and Mobile World Live cuts through the hype to address:

why the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea is highly unlikely to support true 5G

the challenges facing operators – and device vendors – in hitting these ambitious deadlines

the visionary new services 5G technology could enable at the Games

the companies leading the way to a 5G future

why there is such urgency behind these Olympic efforts

Download the free report to learn this and more!

How will the Olympics shape 5G?

The key differentiator for IoT is the data collected and the use of this data to improve business operations, products, support, and customer experience. Many companies have already connected their equipment or assets and begun collecting data. The challenge is how to leverage the data to realize the true benefits of IoT, not only for the companies’ specific uses, but also to extend the information to auxiliary businesses. There will be two key components to evolving IoT to its true potential. In this white paper, discover the two key components and how a data exchange can be used to realize both components.

Implications of the Data Exchange on the Connected Car Business Models

In practice, making existing cities smart is proving hard. Many different stakeholders need to be involved, while sensors, controls and connectivity can be difficult to install in dense urban environments. In response, some cities are now experimenting with low cost, low power Internet of Things technologies that could usher in a new wave of smart city applications. In the medium-term, 5G technologies are also promising to give municipalities access to ultra-reliable, low latency bandwidth. Is the smart city era finally upon us? Check out this editorial report from RCR Wireless to find out.

Smartening up the City - New technologies promise a breakthrough for efforts to improve urban living

Enterprise Internet of Things (IoT) solutions are one of the hot button topics of the technology space for 2016. To better understand the dynamics involved with the adoption and deployment of IoT solutions among US enterprises, Machina Research was commissioned by the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), InterDigital and Telit to develop a survey of enterprise decision makers focused on core IoT elements. This white paper provides an analytical assessment of top trends in IoT as detailed by US company executives and addresses their top project objectives, the key role of technology standards, deployment strategies, as well as future deployment and spending expectations.

Internet of Things Enterprise Survey

Discover how using non-standardized versus standards-based solutions for IoT will increase the cost of deployment, hinder mass scale and adoption, and stifle technology innovation for smart city initiatives worldwide in this Machina Research white paper.

Open standards in IoT deployments would accelerate growth by 27% and reduce deployment costs by 30%

Hopes are sky-high for what 5G may enable, from 20 Gbps speeds to extremely low latency to connections for billions of IoT new devices. But there are still many unknowns. This FierceWireless eBook sponsored by Cisco, F5 and InterDigital, aims to address some of the unknowns.

The 5G Vision: Preparing for the Next Stage in Wireless Networks

InterDigital received the “2016 Global Internet of Things Platform Competitive Strategy Innovation & Leadership” award from global research and consulting firm Frost & Sullivan for its wot.io data service exchange

. Check out the award write-up to learn more about InterDigital IoT Solutions.

2016 Frost & Sullivan Global IoT Platform Competitive Strategy Innovation and Leadership Award

Discover the benefits of a policy driven intelligent connection management solution, such as InterDigital's Smart Access Manager, from the perspective of subscribers and service providers.

WHITE PAPERS