A case study on latency, bandwidth and energy efficiency of mobile 5G and YouTube Edge service in London. Why the 5G ecosystem and energy efficiency matter?

The advancements in 5G mobile networks and Edge computing offer great potential for services like augmented reality and Cloud gaming, thanks to their low latency and high bandwidth capabilities. However, the practical limitations of achieving optimal latency on real applications remain uncertain. This paper aims to investigate the actual latency and bandwidth provided by 5G Networks and YouTube Edge service in London, UK. We analyze how latency and bandwidth differ between 4G LTE and 5G networks and how the location of YouTube Edge servers impacts these metrics. Our research reveals over 10 significant observations and implications, indicating that the primary constraints on 4G LTE and 5G capabilities are the ecosystem and energy efficiency of mobile devices down-streaming data. Our study demonstrates that to fully unlock the potential of 5G and it's applications, it is crucial to prioritize efforts aimed at improving the ecosystem and enhancing the energy efficiency.