Standardization of Extended Reality (XR) over 5G and 5G-Advanced 3GPP New Radio

Extended Reality (XR) is one of the major innovations to be introduced in 5G/5G-Advanced communication systems. A combination of augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality, supplemented by cloud gaming, revisits the way that humans interact with computers, networks, and each other. However, efficient support of XR services imposes new challenges for existing and future wireless networks. This article presents a tutorial on integrating support for the XR into the 3GPP New Radio (NR), summarizing a range of activities handled within various 3GPP Service and Systems Aspects (SA) and Radio Access Networks (RAN) groups. The article also delivers a system level simulation study evaluating the performance of different XR services over NR Release 17. The article concludes with a vision of further enhancements to better support XR in NR Release 18 and future NR releases also outlining open problems in this area.