Measuring Latency Variation in the Internet

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Measuring Latency Variation in the Internet Measuring Latency Variation in the Internet Toke Høiland-Jørgensen Bengt Ahlgren Per Hurtig Dept of Computer Science SICS Dept of Computer Science Karlstad University, Sweden Box 1263, 164 29 Kista Karlstad University, Sweden toke.hoiland- Sweden [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Anna Brunstrom Dept of Computer Science Karlstad University, Sweden [email protected] ABSTRACT 1. INTRODUCTION We analyse two complementary datasets to quantify the la- As applications turn ever more interactive, network la- tency variation experienced by internet end-users: (i) a large- tency plays an increasingly important role for their perfor- scale active measurement dataset (from the Measurement mance. The end-goal is to get as close as possible to the Lab Network Diagnostic Tool) which shed light on long- physical limitations of the speed of light [25]. However, to- term trends and regional differences; and (ii) passive mea- day the latency of internet connections is often larger than it surement data from an access aggregation link which is used needs to be. In this work we set out to quantify how much. to analyse the edge links closest to the user. Having this information available is important to guide work The analysis shows that variation in latency is both com- that sets out to improve the latency behaviour of the inter- mon and of significant magnitude, with two thirds of sam- net; and for authors of latency-sensitive applications (such ples exceeding 100 ms of variation. The variation is seen as Voice over IP, or even many web applications) that seek within single connections as well as between connections to to predict the performance they can expect from the network. the same client. The distribution of experienced latency vari- Many sources of added latency can be highly variable in ation is heavy-tailed, with the most affected clients seeing an nature. This means that we can quantify undesired latency order of magnitude larger variation than the least affected. In by looking specifically at the latency variation experienced addition, there are large differences between regions, both by a client. We do this by measuring how much client la- within and between continents. Despite consistent improve- tency varies above the minimum seen for that client. Our ments in throughput, most regions show no reduction in la- analysis is based on two complementary sources of data: we tency variation over time, and in one region it even increases. combine the extensive publicly available dataset from the We examine load-induced queueing latency as a possible Measurement Lab Network Diagnostic Tool (NDT) with a cause for the variation in latency and find that both data- packet capture from within a service provider access net- sets readily exhibit symptoms of queueing latency correlated work. The NDT data, gathered from 2010 to 2015, com- with network load. Additionally, when this queueing latency prises a total of 265.8 million active test measurements from does occur, it is of significant magnitude, more than 200 ms all over the world. This allows us to examine the develop- in the median. This indicates that load-induced queueing ment in latency variation over time and to look at regional contributes significantly to the overall latency variation. differences. The access network dataset is significantly smal- ler, but the network characteristics are known with greater Keywords certainty. Thus, we can be more confident when interpreting the results from the latter dataset. These differences between Latency; Bufferbloat; Access Network Performance the datasets make them complement each other nicely. We find that significant latency variation is common in both datasets. This is the case both within single connections and between different connections from the same client. In the NDT dataset, we also observe that the magnitude of la- tency variation differs between geographic regions, both be- tween and within continents. Looking at the development CoNEXT ’16 December 12-15, 2016, Irvine, CA, USA over time (also in the NDT dataset), we see very little change c 2016 Copyright held by the owner/author(s). in the numbers. This is in contrast to the overall throughput ACM ISBN 978-1-4503-4292-6/16/12. that has improved significantly. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2999572.2999603 473 Table 1: Total tests per region and year (millions). Reg. 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 AF 0.65 0.63 0.79 0.72 0.76 0.57 AS 7.79 7.45 6.55 5.75 5.83 4.57 Time EU 35.00 31.12 27.96 22.40 21.23 16.82 NA 11.70 8.51 7.90 7.01 7.06 8.00 SA 2.68 1.73 2.83 2.94 2.05 1.26 OC 1.33 1.33 0.79 0.55 0.65 0.57 Total 59.22 50.81 46.87 39.43 37.60 31.79 One important aspect of latency variation is the corre- lation between increased latency and high link utilisation. Queueing delay, in particular, can accumulate quickly when the link capacity is exhausted, and paying attention to such Figure 1: Delays computed from the TCP connection setup. scenarios can give insight into issues that can cause real, if intermittent, performance problems for users. We examine queueing delay as a possible source of the observed latency representative sample of the traffic mix flowing through the variation for both datasets, and find strong indications that internet. Instead, it may tell us something about the links it is present in a number of instances. Furthermore, when being traversed by the measurement flows. Looking at links queueing latency does occur it is of significant magnitude. under load is interesting, because some important effects can The rest of the paper is structured as follows: Section 2 in- be exposed in this way, most notably bufferbloat: Loading troduces the datasets and the methodology we have used to up the link causes any latent buffers to fill, adding latency analyse them. Section 3 discusses the large-scale variations that might not be visible if the link is lightly loaded. This in latency over time and geography, and Section 4 examines also means that the baseline link utilisation (e.g., caused by delay variation on access links. Section 5 presents our exam- diurnal usage patterns) become less important: an already ination of load-induced queueing delay. Finally, Section 6 loaded link can, at worst, result in a potentially higher base- discusses related work and Section 7 concludes the paper. line latency. This means that the results may be biased to- wards showing lower latency variation than is actually seen 2. DATASETS AND METHODOLOGY on the link over time. But since we are interested in estab- lishing a lower bound on the variation, this is acceptable. The datasets underlying our analysis are the publicly avail- For the base analysis, we only exclude tests that were trun- able dataset from Measurement Lab (M-Lab), specifically cated (had a total run time less than 9 seconds). We use the Network Diagnostic Tool (NDT) data [1], combined with the TCP RTT samples as our data points, i.e., the samples packet header traces from access aggregation links of an in- computed by the server TCP stack according to Karn’s algo- ternet service provider. This section presents each of the rithm [23], and focus on the RTT span, defined as the dif- datasets, and the methodology we used for analysis. ference between the minimum and maximum RTT observed 2.1 The M-Lab NDT data during a test run. However, we also examine a subset of the data to assess what impact the choice of min and max ob- The M-Lab NDT is run by users to test their internet con- served RTT has on the data when compared to using other nections. We use the 10-second bulk transfer from the server percentiles for each flow (see Section 3.3). to the client, which is part of the test suite. When the test is run, the client attempts to pick the nearest server from the 2.2 The access aggregation link data geographically distributed network of servers provided by The second dataset comes from two access aggregation the M-Lab platform. The M-Lab servers are globally dis- links of an internet service provider. The links aggregate the tributed1, although with varying density in different regions. traffic for about 50 and 400 clients, respectively, and connect The server is instrumented with the Web100 TCP kernel them to the core network of the service provider. The traffic instrumentation [21], and captures several variables of the was captured passively at different times distributed over an TCP state machine every 5 ms of the test. Data is available eight-month period starting at the end of 2014. The average from early 2009, and we focus on the six year period 2010– loads on the 1 Gbps links were, respectively, about 200 and 2015, comprising a total of 265.8 million test runs. Table 1 400 Mbit/s during peak hours. This dataset is an example of shows the distribution of test runs for the years and regions real internet traffic, since we are not generating any traffic. we have included in our analysis. We analyse the delay experienced by the TCP connection Since the NDT is an active test, the gathered data is not a setup packets in this dataset. The TCP connection setup con- 1See http://www.measurementlab.net/infrastructure for sists of a three-way handshake with SYN, SYN+ACK, and more information on the server placements. ACK packets, as illustrated in Figure 1.
Recommended publications
  • Latency and Throughput Optimization in Modern Networks: a Comprehensive Survey Amir Mirzaeinnia, Mehdi Mirzaeinia, and Abdelmounaam Rezgui
    READY TO SUBMIT TO IEEE COMMUNICATIONS SURVEYS & TUTORIALS JOURNAL 1 Latency and Throughput Optimization in Modern Networks: A Comprehensive Survey Amir Mirzaeinnia, Mehdi Mirzaeinia, and Abdelmounaam Rezgui Abstract—Modern applications are highly sensitive to com- On one hand every user likes to send and receive their munication delays and throughput. This paper surveys major data as quickly as possible. On the other hand the network attempts on reducing latency and increasing the throughput. infrastructure that connects users has limited capacities and These methods are surveyed on different networks and surrond- ings such as wired networks, wireless networks, application layer these are usually shared among users. There are some tech- transport control, Remote Direct Memory Access, and machine nologies that dedicate their resources to some users but they learning based transport control, are not very much commonly used. The reason is that although Index Terms—Rate and Congestion Control , Internet, Data dedicated resources are more secure they are more expensive Center, 5G, Cellular Networks, Remote Direct Memory Access, to implement. Sharing a physical channel among multiple Named Data Network, Machine Learning transmitters needs a technique to control their rate in proper time. The very first congestion network collapse was observed and reported by Van Jacobson in 1986. This caused about a I. INTRODUCTION thousand time rate reduction from 32kbps to 40bps [3] which Recent applications such as Virtual Reality (VR), au- is about a thousand times rate reduction. Since then very tonomous cars or aerial vehicles, and telehealth need high different variations of the Transport Control Protocol (TCP) throughput and low latency communication.
    [Show full text]
  • The Effects of Latency on Player Performance and Experience in A
    The Effects of Latency on Player Performance and Experience in a Cloud Gaming System Robert Dabrowski, Christian Manuel, Robert Smieja May 7, 2014 An Interactive Qualifying Project Report: submitted to the Faculty of the WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Science Approved by: Professor Mark Claypool, Advisor Professor David Finkel, Advisor This report represents the work of three WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its web site without editorial or peer review. Abstract Due to the increasing popularity of thin client systems for gaming, it is important to un- derstand the effects of different network conditions on users. This paper describes our experiments to determine the effects of latency on player performance and quality of expe- rience (QoE). For our experiments, we collected player scores and subjective ratings from users as they played short game sessions with different amounts of additional latency. We found that QoE ratings and player scores decrease linearly as latency is added. For ev- ery 100 ms of added latency, players reduced their QoE ratings by 14% on average. This information may provide insight to game designers and network engineers on how latency affects the users, allowing them to optimize their systems while understanding the effects on their clients. This experiment design should also prove useful to thin client researchers looking to conduct user studies while controlling not only latency, but also other network conditions like packet loss. Contents 1 Introduction 1 2 Background Research 4 2.1 Thin Client Technology .
    [Show full text]
  • Evaluating the Latency Impact of Ipv6 on a High Frequency Trading System
    Evaluating the Latency Impact of IPv6 on a High Frequency Trading System Nereus Lobo, Vaibhav Malik, Chris Donnally, Seth Jahne, Harshil Jhaveri [email protected] , [email protected] , [email protected] , [email protected] , [email protected] A capstone paper submitted as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Interdisciplinary Telecommunications at the University of Colorado, Boulder, 4 May 2012. Project directed by Dr. Pieter Poll and Professor Andrew Crain. 1 Introduction Employing latency-dependent strategies, financial trading firms rely on trade execution speed to obtain a price advantage on an asset in order to earn a profit of a fraction of a cent per asset share [1]. Through successful execution of these strategies, trading firms are able to realize profits on the order of billions of dollars per year [2]. The key to success for these trading strategies are ultra-low latency processing and networking systems, henceforth called High Frequency Trading (HFT) systems, which enable trading firms to execute orders with the necessary speed to realize a profit [1]. However, competition from other trading firms magnifies the need to achieve the lowest latency possible. A 1 µs latency disadvantage can result in unrealized profits on the order of $1 million per day [3]. For this reason, trading firms spend billions of dollars on their data center infrastructure to ensure the lowest propagation delay possible [4]. Further, trading firms have expanded their focus on latency optimization to other aspects of their trading infrastructure including application performance, inter-application messaging performance, and network infrastructure modernization [5].
    [Show full text]
  • Low-Latency Networking: Where Latency Lurks and How to Tame It Xiaolin Jiang, Hossein S
    1 Low-latency Networking: Where Latency Lurks and How to Tame It Xiaolin Jiang, Hossein S. Ghadikolaei, Student Member, IEEE, Gabor Fodor, Senior Member, IEEE, Eytan Modiano, Fellow, IEEE, Zhibo Pang, Senior Member, IEEE, Michele Zorzi, Fellow, IEEE, and Carlo Fischione Member, IEEE Abstract—While the current generation of mobile and fixed The second step in the communication networks revolutions communication networks has been standardized for mobile has made PSTN indistinguishable from our everyday life. Such broadband services, the next generation is driven by the vision step is the Global System for Mobile (GSM) communication of the Internet of Things and mission critical communication services requiring latency in the order of milliseconds or sub- standards suite. In the beginning of the 2000, GSM has become milliseconds. However, these new stringent requirements have a the most widely spread mobile communications system, thanks large technical impact on the design of all layers of the commu- to the support for users mobility, subscriber identity confiden- nication protocol stack. The cross layer interactions are complex tiality, subscriber authentication as well as confidentiality of due to the multiple design principles and technologies that user traffic and signaling [4]. The PSTN and its extension via contribute to the layers’ design and fundamental performance limitations. We will be able to develop low-latency networks only the GSM wireless access networks have been a tremendous if we address the problem of these complex interactions from the success in terms of Weiser’s vision, and also paved the way new point of view of sub-milliseconds latency. In this article, we for new business models built around mobility, high reliability, propose a holistic analysis and classification of the main design and latency as required from the perspective of voice services.
    [Show full text]
  • Simulation and Comparison of Various Scheduling Algorithm for Improving the Interrupt Latency of Real –Time Kernal
    Journal of Computer Science and Applications. ISSN 2231-1270 Volume 6, Number 2 (2014), pp. 115-123 © International Research Publication House http://www.irphouse.com Simulation And Comparison of Various Scheduling Algorithm For Improving The Interrupt Latency of Real –Time Kernal 1.Lavanya Dhanesh 2.Dr.P.Murugesan 1.Research Scholar, Sathyabama University, Chennai, India. 2.Professor, S.A. Engineering College, Chennai, India. Email:1. [email protected] Abstract The main objective of the research is to improve the performance of the Real- time Interrupt Latency using Pre-emptive task Scheduling Algorithm. Interrupt Latency provides an important metric in increasing the performance of the Real Time Kernal So far the research has been investigated with respect to real-time latency reduction to improve the task switching as well the performance of the CPU. Based on the literature survey, the pre-emptive task scheduling plays an vital role in increasing the performance of the interrupt latency. A general disadvantage of the non-preemptive discipline is that it introduces additional blocking time in higher priority tasks, so reducing schedulability . If the interrupt latency is increased the task switching delay shall be increasing with respect to each task. Hence most of the research work has been focussed to reduce interrupt latency by many methods. The key area identified is, we cannot control the hardware interrupt delay but we can improve the Interrupt service as quick as possible by reducing the no of preemptions. Based on this idea, so many researches has been involved to optimize the pre-emptive scheduling scheme to reduce the real-time interrupt latency.
    [Show full text]
  • Telematic Performance and the Challenge of Latency
    This is a repository copy of Telematic performance and the challenge of latency. White Rose Research Online URL for this paper: https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/126501/ Version: Accepted Version Article: Rofe, Michael and Reuben, Federico orcid.org/0000-0003-1330-7346 (2017) Telematic performance and the challenge of latency. The Journal of Music, Technology and Education. 167–183. ISSN 1752-7074 https://doi.org/10.1386/jmte.10.2-3.167_1 Reuse Items deposited in White Rose Research Online are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved unless indicated otherwise. They may be downloaded and/or printed for private study, or other acts as permitted by national copyright laws. The publisher or other rights holders may allow further reproduction and re-use of the full text version. This is indicated by the licence information on the White Rose Research Online record for the item. Takedown If you consider content in White Rose Research Online to be in breach of UK law, please notify us by emailing [email protected] including the URL of the record and the reason for the withdrawal request. [email protected] https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/ Telematic performance and the challenge of latency Michael Rofe | Federico Reuben Abstract Any attempt to perform music over a network requires engagement with the issue of latency. Either latency needs to be reduced to the point where it is no longer noticeable or creative alternatives to working with latency need to be developed. Given that Online Orchestra aimed to enable performance in community contexts, where significant bandwidth and specialist equipment were not available, it would not be possible to reduce latency below the 20–30ms cut-off at which it becomes noticeable.
    [Show full text]
  • Action-Sound Latency: Are Our Tools Fast Enough?
    Action-Sound Latency: Are Our Tools Fast Enough? Andrew P. McPherson Robert H. Jack Giulio Moro Centre for Digital Music Centre for Digital Music Centre for Digital Music School of EECS School of EECS School of EECS Queen Mary U. of London Queen Mary U. of London Queen Mary U. of London [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] ABSTRACT accepted guidelines for latency and jitter (variation in la- The importance of low and consistent latency in interactive tency). music systems is well-established. So how do commonly- Where previous papers have focused on latency in a sin- used tools for creating digital musical instruments and other gle component (e.g. audio throughput latency [21, 20] and tangible interfaces perform in terms of latency from user ac- roundtrip network latency [17]), this paper measures the tion to sound output? This paper examines several common latency of complete platforms commonly employed to cre- configurations where a microcontroller (e.g. Arduino) or ate digital musical instruments. Within these platforms we wireless device communicates with computer-based sound test the most reductive possible setup: producing an audio generator (e.g. Max/MSP, Pd). We find that, perhaps \click" in response to a change on a single digital or ana- surprisingly, almost none of the tested configurations meet log pin. This provides a minimum latency measurement for generally-accepted guidelines for latency and jitter. To ad- any tool created on that platform; naturally, the designer's dress this limitation, the paper presents a new embedded application may introduce additional latency through filter platform, Bela, which is capable of complex audio and sen- group delay, block-based processing or other buffering.
    [Show full text]
  • 5G Qos: Impact of Security Functions on Latency
    5G QoS: Impact of Security Functions on Latency Sebastian Gallenmuller¨ ∗, Johannes Naab∗, Iris Adamy, Georg Carle∗ ∗Technical University of Munich, yNokia Bell Labs ∗fgallenmu, naab, [email protected], [email protected] Abstract—Network slicing is considered a key enabler to low latency and high predictability on the other side can go 5th Generation (5G) communication networks. Mobile network together. The goals of our investigation are threefold: (i) cre- operators may deploy network slices—complete logical networks ating a low-latency packet processing architecture for security customized for specific services expecting a certain Quality of Service (QoS). New business models like Network Slice-as-a- functions with minimal packet loss, (ii) conducting extensive Service offerings to customers from vertical industries require ne- measurements applying hardware-supported timestamping to gotiated Service Level Agreements (SLA), and network providers precisely determine worst-case latencies, and (iii) introducing need automated enforcement mechanisms to assure QoS during a model to predict the capacity of our low-latency system for instantiation and operation of slices. In this paper, we focus on overload prevention. Our proposed system architecture relies ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC). We propose a software architecture for security functions based on off- on well-known applications and libraries such as Linux, the the-shelf hardware and open-source software and demonstrate, Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK), and Snort. Besides the through a series of measurements, that the strict requirements of specific measurements for the Snort IPS, we investigate the URLLC services can be achieved. As a real-world example, we performance of the underlying operating system (OS) and perform our experiments using the intrusion prevention system libraries in use, namely Linux and DPDK, which emphasizes (IPS) Snort to demonstrate the impact of security functions on latency.
    [Show full text]
  • CPU Scheduling
    Chapter 5: CPU Scheduling Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018 Chapter 5: CPU Scheduling Basic Concepts Scheduling Criteria Scheduling Algorithms Thread Scheduling Multi-Processor Scheduling Real-Time CPU Scheduling Operating Systems Examples Algorithm Evaluation Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 5.2 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018 Objectives Describe various CPU scheduling algorithms Assess CPU scheduling algorithms based on scheduling criteria Explain the issues related to multiprocessor and multicore scheduling Describe various real-time scheduling algorithms Describe the scheduling algorithms used in the Windows, Linux, and Solaris operating systems Apply modeling and simulations to evaluate CPU scheduling algorithms Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 5.3 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018 Basic Concepts Maximum CPU utilization obtained with multiprogramming CPU–I/O Burst Cycle – Process execution consists of a cycle of CPU execution and I/O wait CPU burst followed by I/O burst CPU burst distribution is of main concern Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 5.4 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018 Histogram of CPU-burst Times Large number of short bursts Small number of longer bursts Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition 5.5 Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018 CPU Scheduler The CPU scheduler selects from among the processes in ready queue, and allocates the a CPU core to one of them Queue may be ordered in various ways CPU scheduling decisions may take place when a
    [Show full text]
  • Bufferbloat: Advertently Defeated a Critical TCP Con- Gestion-Detection Mechanism, with the Result Being Worsened Congestion and Increased Latency
    practice Doi:10.1145/2076450.2076464 protocol the presence of congestion Article development led by queue.acm.org and thus the need for compensating adjustments. Because memory now is significant- A discussion with Vint Cerf, Van Jacobson, ly cheaper than it used to be, buffering Nick Weaver, and Jim Gettys. has been overdone in all manner of net- work devices, without consideration for the consequences. Manufacturers have reflexively acted to prevent any and all packet loss and, by doing so, have in- BufferBloat: advertently defeated a critical TCP con- gestion-detection mechanism, with the result being worsened congestion and increased latency. Now that the problem has been di- What’s Wrong agnosed, people are working feverishly to fix it. This case study considers the extent of the bufferbloat problem and its potential implications. Working to with the steer the discussion is Vint Cerf, popu- larly known as one of the “fathers of the Internet.” As the co-designer of the TCP/IP protocols, Cerf did indeed play internet? a key role in developing the Internet and related packet data and security technologies while at Stanford Univer- sity from 1972−1976 and with the U.S. Department of Defense’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) from 1976−1982. He currently serves as Google’s chief Internet evangelist. internet DeLays nOw are as common as they are Van Jacobson, presently a research maddening. But that means they end up affecting fellow at PARC where he leads the networking research program, is also system engineers just like all the rest of us. And when central to this discussion.
    [Show full text]
  • Real-Time Latency: Rethinking Remote Networks
    Real-Time Latency: Rethinking Remote Networks You can buy your way out of “bandwidth problems. But latency is divine ” || Proprietary & Confidential 2 Executive summary ▲ Latency is the time delay over a communications link, and is primarily determined by the distance data must travel between a user and the server ▲ Low earth orbits (LEO) are 35 times closer to Earth than traditional geostationary orbit (GEO) used for satellite communications. Due to the closeness and shorter data paths, LEO-based networks have latency similar to terrestrial networks1 ▲ LEO’s low latency enables fiber quality connectivity, benefiting users and service providers by - Loading webpages as fast as Fiber and ~8 times faster than a traditional satellite system - Simplifying networks by removing need for performance accelerators - Improving management of secure and encrypted traffic - Allowing real-time applications from remote areas (e.g., VoIP, telemedicine, remote-control machines) ▲ Telesat Lightspeed not only offers low latency but also provides - High throughput and flexible capacity - Transformational economics - Highly resilient and secure global network - Plug and play, standard-based Ethernet service 30 – 50 milliseconds Round Trip Time (RTT) | Proprietary & Confidential 3 Questions answered ▲ What is Latency? ▲ How does it vary for different technologies? How does lower latency improve user experience? What business outcomes can lower latency enable? Telesat Lightspeed - what is the overall value proposition? | Proprietary & Confidential 4 What is
    [Show full text]
  • 5G Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communication Implementation Challenges and Operational Issues with Iot Devices
    Review 5G Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communication Implementation Challenges and Operational Issues with IoT Devices Murtaza Ahmed Siddiqi 1, Heejung Yu 2,* and Jingon Joung 3 1 Department of Information and Communication Engineering, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan 38541, Korea 2 Department of Electronics and Information Engineering, Korea University, Sejong 30019, Korea 3 School of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Chung-Ang University, Seoul 06974, Korea * Correspondence: [email protected]; Tel.: +82-44-860-1352 Received: 31 July 2019; Accepted: 29 August 2019; Published: 2 September 2019 Abstract: To meet the diverse industrial and market demands, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has classified the fifth-generation (5G) into ultra-reliable low latency communications (URLLC), enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), and massive machine-type communications (mMTC). Researchers conducted studies to achieve the implementation of the mentioned distributions efficiently, within the available spectrum. This paper aims to highlight the importance of URLLC in accordance with the approaching era of technology and industry requirements. While highlighting a few implementation issues of URLLC, concerns for the Internet of things (IoT) devices that depend on the low latency and reliable communications of URLLC are also addressed. In this paper, the recent progress of 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standardization and the implementation of URLLC are included. Finally, the research areas that are open for further investigation in URLLC implementation are highlighted, and efficient implementation of URLLC is discussed. Keywords: 5G; URLLC; 3GPP; 5G NR; LTE; IoT 1. Introduction With the everyday increase in data traffic requirements ranging from mission-critical to massive machine connectivity, the anticipation of the fifth-generation (5G) is growing at an exponential rate.
    [Show full text]