Connectivity-Aware Redirected Walking in 5G mmWave Networks

Enabling immersive metaverse in virtual environments (VE) is one of the key applications for 5G networks and beyond. To achieve this, redirected walking (RDW) allows six-degree-of-freedom (6DoF) movements and guides each virtual reality (VR) user along a virtual path by imperceptibly manipulating the scene seen by the user, in a way to prevent collisions with obstacles in physical space. Generally, RDW allows users to traverse a vast virtual environment in a finite physical space via natural walking. This requires wireless VR utilizing wireless connections. Wireless VR applications have high demands on network bandwidth, requiring users to stay in areas with good wireless conditions. However, existing RDW solutions do not take into account connectivity constraints and may lead VR users to areas with poor network resources. To solve this problem, we model the redirected path-finding problem in 5G millimeter wave (mmWave) communication systems and solve it as a grid-based angle-constrained problem with dynamic programming. Simulation results show the performance of our solution, demonstrating that it is indeed an excellent solution for wireless RDW applications.