Introduction
In recent years, the demand for live video streaming has surged across various industries, from security and surveillance, to media broadcasting and smart cities. One of the key enablers of this trend is the shift from 4G to 5G, promising faster speeds, lower latency, and higher capacity. However, despite the significant advancements of 5G, challenges remain – particularly in maintaining the quality of low-latency video streaming.
This white paper will explore the issues and solutions to live, low-latency video streaming over 5G networks. We will review popular use cases, the improvements 5G offers over 4G, and the potential pitfalls that still exist with the latest mobile network technology. Along the way, we’ll break down key technical terms and challenges like latency, packet loss, bit rate, and fluctuating speeds, in simple, easy-to-understand terms for a non-technical audience.
The Evolution from 4G to 5G for Live Video Streaming
4G networks brought a revolution to mobile video streaming, enabling smoother, higher-quality video experiences over the air. However, despite 4G’s benefits, it struggled with:
High latency:
The time it took for video data to travel from the camera to the viewer often caused additional delays (of up to 50-100 milliseconds), limiting real-time applications like security surveillance, especially where camera control is required for functionality, such as pan, tilt, and zoom (PTZ).
Bandwidth limitations:
Streaming higher-quality video, such as Full HD or 4K was constrained by the bandwidth 4G could offer, especially in densely populated areas.
Network congestion:
As more devices connected to the same 4G network, video quality could degrade significantly during peak times. This can be a particular issue within cities, close to sports and entertainment venues, or transport hubs.
5G technology represents the next big leap, bringing theoretical speeds of up to 10 gigabits per second – much faster than 4G. Latency can be reduced to 1 millisecond, offering the potential for real-time, live-streamed video with almost no delay.
Note: Whilst theoretical speeds are quoted, it is important to note that initial roll outs are likely to be much slower. For example, in the Mobile Matters 2024 report from OFCOM, it stated that: ‘5G services in the UK provided less than 2Mb upload speeds for 19% of the time and only provided over 20Mb/s for 29% of the time.’ As a rule, you should target 4Mb for FHD video and twice that for 4K.
Key Improvements of 5G over 4G
Lower latency:
A dramatic reduction in latency ensures quicker transmission of video data, crucial for real-time applications, such as live event coverage, law enforcement, or remote surgeries.
Greater bandwidth:
5G can handle significantly more data than 4G, supporting the higher demands of 4K and 8K video streaming without buffering or reduced quality.
Higher capacity:
5G allows for many more devices to connect to the network at the same time, meaning you can theoretically stream high-quality video even in crowded areas, like concerts or sporting events.
Popular Use Cases for 5G-Enabled Low-Latency Video Streaming
1. Public Safety and Surveillance
Law enforcement and security agencies rely on live video feeds from CCTV cameras to monitor public spaces, detect incidents in real-time, and respond swiftly. With 5G, security personnel can stream high-definition video with minimal lag, ensuring they see events unfold as they happen, rather than with a delay.
2. Smart Cities and Traffic Management
In smart cities, real-time traffic monitoring and management are essential to prevent congestion and ensure public safety. With 5G, traffic cameras can stream real-time footage to city control centres, allowing authorities to adjust traffic signals or respond to accidents immediately.
3. Live Event Broadcasting
Media organizations broadcasting live sports or concerts benefit from 5G’s ability to transmit high-definition, low-latency feeds from multiple cameras. This ensures that viewers experience the event in real-time, even when watching from different angles or devices.
4. Remote Healthcare
Telemedicine and remote surgeries can use 5G to transmit live video feeds from operating rooms or patient consultations in real-time, allowing medical professionals to make immediate decisions without delays in communication.
Challenges of Streaming Low-Latency Video over 5G
Despite the significant improvements, 5G still faces several challenges when it comes to live video streaming. Below are the most critical factors impacting video quality and reliability.
1. Latency
Latency refers to the delay between sending data and receiving it, and it’s especially important in video streaming because any delay can disrupt real-time viewing. Although 5G can theoretically achieve 1 millisecond latency, real-world conditions may result in higher latency due to network infrastructure, geographical coverage, and congestion.
2. Packet Loss
Packet loss occurs when data packets (small chunks of video information), fail to reach their destination. This can result in frozen or blurry video frames, audio issues, or a complete stream breakdown. Even with 5G’s high speeds, factors like poor signal strength, congestion, or physical obstacles can still lead to packet loss, reducing the overall quality of the video.
3. Bit Rate and Video Quality
Bit rate refers to the amount of data transmitted per second in the video stream. Higher bit rates deliver clearer, more detailed video, but they also require more bandwidth. 5G’s increased bandwidth allows for higher bit rates, enabling 4K and even 8K streaming. However, higher resolutions and bit rates come with the trade-off of increased storage needs and the potential for buffering if the network speed fluctuates.
4. Bandwidth and Storage
With higher video resolutions comes a significant increase in bandwidth requirements. A 4K video stream uses roughly 15-25 megabits per second (Mbps), and 8K video can require 80-100 Mbps. This creates new challenges for storage and processing:
– Storage capacity:
Storing high-resolution video for later review or evidence collection demands significantly more space, driving the need for expanded storage infrastructure.
– Network congestion:
As more 5G devices connect to the network, bandwidth can become limited, especially in areas with poor infrastructure or heavy demand. This congestion can cause fluctuating speeds and impact the quality of live video streams.
5. Fluctuating Bitrates
While 5G is designed to offer stable, high-speed connections, real-world conditions such as network congestion, signal interference, and geographical limitations can cause fluctuations in the actual speed and bit rate available for streaming. This leads to unpredictable video quality, potentially causing frame drops, buffering, lower resolution or loss of video entirely.
During busy times, mobile networks employ various methods to maintain service for all users that can lead to very high frequency of fluctuations. This may involves switching between multiple frequency bands within the 5G network or using the 4G network to help balance the network load. As people move around the network will automatically switch between mobile cells to optimise the network and occasionally, when network traffic is very high some providers may throttle speeds under certain conditions to prevent congestion. All these conditions result in rapid fluctuations in available bitrate which, for some applications, may go mostly unnoticed, however, this condition has a big impact on live video streaming and may require additional software and hardware to manage this.
Looking Ahead: Why 5G still has potential issues
Despite its benefits, 5G is not yet a universal solution for low-latency video streaming due to a few key reasons:
Network coverage:
5G infrastructure is still being rolled out, meaning many areas – especially rural or remote regions – lack the necessary coverage for consistent, high-speed connections.
Capacity limits:
In areas with high device density, such as major cities or during events, 5G networks can become congested. While 5G can support more devices than 4G, it’s important to know that there’s still a limit to how many simultaneous streams can be handled without quality degradation.
It isn’t currently financially viable to design networks to handle peak demand, so anywhere with variable capacity demands is likely to suffer some degradation in service, which can lead to a total loss of video in many situations.
Infrastructure dependencies:
5G’s full potential requires widespread millimetre wave (mmWave) networks, which offer the highest speeds but have limited range and can be blocked by physical objects, like buildings or trees. This can result in patchy coverage, especially in dense urban environments. Often Low-band (Sub-6 GHz) is used as it covers a wider area and penetrates buildings better but has slower speeds. Switching between the two different bands often creates fluctuations in available network speeds.
Conclusion: The Future of Low-Latency Video Streaming over 5G
5G has undoubtedly transformed the landscape of live video streaming, offering significant improvements in speed, latency, and capacity compared to 4G. However, the technology still faces challenges in achieving universal, high-quality, low-latency video streaming. Factors such as network congestion, coverage gaps, and the impact of higher resolutions on bandwidth and storage requirements remain key concerns.
As 5G infrastructure continues to expand, industries like security, broadcasting, and healthcare will benefit immensely from the ability to stream real-time, high-definition video. However, careful planning and infrastructure upgrades will be needed to fully leverage 5G’s capabilities and overcome its limitations.
Consider specialist video compression and video transport solutions when planning any mobile video deployments and make sure the solution will work when the network ‘falls back’ to 4G or other complimentary network services.
Key takeaways
– 5G brings lower latency, higher speeds, and better bandwidth for video streaming compared to 4G, enabling smoother, more reliable live video experiences.
– Challenges like packet loss, network congestion, and fluctuating speeds still affect the quality of 5G video streams, particularly in high-density areas.
– Higher resolutions like 4K and 8K video demand more bandwidth, leading to increased storage needs and the risk of congestion on 5G networks.
– While 5G shows great potential, its full deployment and the implementation of robust infrastructure are necessary to achieve consistent, high-quality low-latency streaming in all environments.
How Vemotion can help
Vemotion provides an end-to-end video streaming solution that reduces the required bandwidth for high quality, low latency video streaming – providing high quality video even when bandwidth is constrained.
Our latest proprietary streaming protocol improves the active monitoring of available network speeds and automatically alters the stream variables in real time, to provide the best viewing experience by removing the effects of packet loss, jitter or fluctuations in network speed. With ONVIF support, users can take advantages of camera controls such as pan, tilt and zoom, as well as integrate into existing Video Management Systems or to stream directly to an ultra-live web view.
