Survey on Advancing QoE in the 5G/6G Era: Challenges, Standards, and Emerging Directions

Quality of Experience (QoE) has emerged as a crucial user-centric metric in the design and evaluation of next-generation wireless networks. As the transition from 5G to 6G accelerates, the increasing diversity of services, device heterogeneity, and evolving user expectations pose significant challenges to effective QoE modeling and management. This survey provides a comprehensive review of recent QoE standards proposed by the ITU, ETSI, and 3GPP, and examines their implications for modern network architecture. It highlights how key 5G innovations, such as network slicing and edge computing, influence current QoE approaches, while also addressing how 6G-envisioned capabilities, such as holographic communications, tactile Internet, and semantic-aware transmission, necessitate the development of novel QoE dimensions. Additionally, it offers a structured overview of recent advancements in QoE research by categorizing selected surveys according to the key stages of the QoE lifecycle: modeling and estimation, optimization techniques, and service-delivery architecture. By identifying the current limitations, gaps, and emerging directions, this survey aims to support the research community in advancing scalable, intelligent, and user-intent-aware QoE frameworks for future wireless systems.