Video Adaptation Based on 5G Network QoS in Harsh Underground Environment

The mining industry is deploying private 5G networks in harsh underground environments due to foreseeable benefits of the advanced technology. Safe operation with autonomous and remotely controlled machines set strict requirements for the communication quality of service (QoS) and application adaptivity. Live video streaming is essential for remote operations of the mining vehicles and video adaptation is needed not only against network uplink throughput fluctuations, but also to guarantee prioritized network traffic. This paper presents our adaptive video streaming implementation, which is able to adjust to the prevailing uplink network conditions near real-time based on the gathered network QoS information. The paper also shows the extensive set of verification tests in an underground test environment using a moving vehicle and a private 5G standalone network. The results from these field tests showcase the clear advantage of using video adaptation based on network QoS for reducing the uplink delay peaks in video streaming.