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

TL;DR

The paper tackles the problem of delivering ultra-low-latency remote rendering for XR holographic conferencing over wireless networks. It compares three protocols—Media over QUIC (MoQ), RTP over QUIC (RoQ), and WebRTC—across Wi‑Fi and private 5G networks using a Unity/GStreamer-based edge rendering pipeline deployed in Kubernetes. Key findings show that QUIC-based protocols can reduce startup latency by up to about 30% and offer competitive end-to-end latency, with RoQ achieving the fastest startup but MoQ introducing relay-related delays; WebRTC remains the most mature and resource-efficient solution. The work provides practical guidance for designing latency-sensitive XR streaming systems and identifies maturation gaps in QUIC-based streaming, highlighting directions for multipath and bidirectional enhancements in future research.

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.

Figures (2)

• Figure 1: Architecture for implementing communication between the remote renderer and the player
• Figure 2: Testbed for Wi-Fi and 5G latency measurement.