5G-EMERGE: A Sustainable Approach to High-Quality Content Delivery

By Kris Brown, CTO, Humans Not Robots

The 5G-EMERGE project represents a bold venture into the future of media delivery, leveraging an integrated satellite and terrestrial system to meet the rising demands in high-quality content distribution services. Backed by the European Space Agency (ESA) under its ARTES programme, this initiative is intended to reshape how video, audio, and data are delivered efficiently and sustainably.

At Humans Not Robots (HNR), we are proud to be a key partner in Phase 2 of this cutting-edge project. With our expertise focused on sustainability and advanced analytics, our aim is to ensure not just technical excellence but a measurable positive impact on the environmental, economic, and social footprint of media distribution. By advocating an integrated approach that includes Quality of Impact (QoI) alongside Quality of Experience (QoE) and Quality of Service (QoS), HNR seeks to pioneer a future-ready framework for scalable and sustainable content delivery.

Understanding the 5G-EMERGE Project

5G-EMERGE is a multi-phased project led by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and funded primarily by the ESA and other space agencies, such as UKSA, bringing together stakeholders from satellite, broadband, and content delivery ecosystems. Its mission is to develop an open-standards-based system that links satellite networks with terrestrial 5G ecosystems to deliver content seamlessly to users. Whether it’s streaming live events or delivering on-demand services, the system ensures high-quality performance right to the edge of networks—including consumer homes and vehicles.

With its first phase concluding in 2024, 5G-EMERGE validated its feasibility via demonstrators and testbeds spanning use cases such as direct-to-home, direct-to-vehicle, and direct-to-edge. The outputs from that phase can be found HERE.  

Now, in Phase 2, the project expands to include direct-to-device multicast/broadcast capabilities and the integration of technologies from upcoming 5G NR-NTN systems.

Addressing Key Challenges

Today, the demands placed on media networks are surging due to the rise in high-quality video and audio streaming. Terrestrial networks alone struggle to scale to these pressures economically and sustainably. 5G-EMERGE tackles this head-on by introducing a hybrid transmission model where satellites play a core role in broad distribution, freeing up terrestrial network capacities for interactive or real-time services. By doing so, it mitigates network congestion while reducing inefficiencies.

The 3Q Approach

• Quality of Service (QoS): Focuses on the measurement of the service being delivered, such as a consistent level of media streaming over network types and prioritising latency-sensitive delivery and techniques to improve it.

• Quality of Experience (QoE): Focuses on the subjective experience of the service consumer, such as end-users being able to discover content and receiving smooth streaming with minimal buffering and high reliability.  

• Quality of Impact (QoI): A term we at Humans Not Robots have coined, based on our experiences in the field over the past few years. In much the same way that QoE builds on QoS, QoI goes beyond QoE and considers the impact of a service holistically  including sustainability —measuring the economic, environmental, and social impact—such as energy cost, carbon costs and social value of the media supply chain.  

The inclusion of QoI brings an urgent focus on sustainability in an industry that is a larger polluter than the airline industry.  

This article marks the beginning of a series dedicated to exploring Quality of Impact across various industries and domains. Stay tuned for more insights to come.

Humans Not Robots’ Role in 5G-EMERGE

Custodians of Quality of Impact (QoI)

At HNR, our responsibility lies in ensuring the project's sustainability objectives. Leveraging our observability and analytics platform, HNR to ZERO, we measure the entire content distribution lifecycle—from origination to edge delivery. Key metrics include carbon footprint, energy consumption, and cost efficiency, ensuring environmental impacts are actionable and optimisable.

Sustainability through HNR to ZERO

Our platform gathers data from both business and technical operations, enabling real-time insights and analytics. By applying standardised measurement protocols, such as OpenTelemetry, across diverse nodes in the satellite/terrestrial network, we’re able to compare energy baselines and visualise actionable improvements. The output isn’t just technical efficiency, but also operational changes that align sustainability initiatives with the core business goals.

Observability and Metrics Framework

HNR’s technical contribution includes:

• Energy Monitoring: Capturing data from key points, including content origin, uplink edges, satellite distribution, and more.  

• Visualisation Dashboards: Creating clear comparisons and insights to inform action.  

• Analytics-Driven Reporting: Advising on trade-offs to balance performance with sustainability.  

By drilling down into these metrics, HNR not only ensures adherence to QoI requirements but also informs broader industry strategies for reducing media delivery's environmental footprint.

Key Outcomes and Impact

Benefits of Integration

The hybrid satellite and terrestrial model proposed by 5G-EMERGE unlocks significant advantages for stakeholders:

• Scalability: Addresses growing demands for content by distributing popular streams via satellite, reserving terrestrial resources for personalised or low-demand content.  

• Cost and Resource Optimisation: Reduces reliance on costly unicast distribution models.  

• Carbon Reduction: Through precise data monitoring and energy trade-offs, tangible reductions in carbon footprint are achievable.  

Impact on Industries and Users

Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), media distributors, and end-users all stand to benefit. Enhanced QoE means fewer interruptions and increased reliability for customers, while MNOs can streamline operations using the system's efficiencies. Broader societal impacts include a shift toward cleaner, greener telecom and media infrastructures.

Social Considerations

A key ethos of HNR’s contribution is to prioritise human impact over purely technical metrics. Improved content accessibility and greener operations collectively contribute to a media framework attuned to community and environmental health.

Why QoI is a Game-Changer

QoE and QoS are established metrics for evaluating telecommunications and media services. But without considering Quality of Impact, the industry risks neglecting the broader sustainability implications of its rapid growth. By elevating QoI to equal standing, HNR highlights the urgency of embedding environmentally and socially conscious practices into technologies. From climate change challenges to consumer demand for responsible brands, the stakes are clear.

Looking Ahead

HNR’s ongoing work in Phase 2 includes further fine-tuning its analytics and observability capabilities, specifically in direct-to-device systems. This will allow for a seamless extension of 5G-EMERGE’s impact into edge use cases like connected vehicles, localised streaming, and more. Alongside consortium partners, HNR is exploring further integration with upcoming 5G NR-NTN systems.

Broader Applications

The standards and innovations developed within 5G-EMERGE have wider applications beyond media delivery. From automotive infotainment to edge gaming, integrating satellite and terrestrial technologies can redefine performance expectations across industries.

HNR’s role within 5G-EMERGE demonstrates a commitment to advancing the future of media delivery while prioritising sustainability. By focusing on Quality of Impact alongside traditional performance metrics, we are paving the way for a more efficient and greener future.

Want to Learn More?

Discover how Humans Not Robots is shaping media delivery systems and driving sustainability in the technology landscape. Reach out to us for further insights on HNR to ZERO and our contribution to 5G-EMERGE.

Work described in this article / presented was done under ESA contract 400013171/22/NL/AF. Responsibility for the contents resides in the author or organisation that prepared it and can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of ESA.

Header image courtesy of ESA