Page 18 - Kaleidoscope Academic Conference Proceedings 2022
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Metaverse: Challenges for Extended Reality and

                 Holographic-Type Communication in the Next Decade


                                                      Ian F. Akyildiz
                                   ITU Journal on Future and Evolving Technologies (ITU J FET)
                                                  Email: ian.akyildiz@itu.int


                            I.  INTRODUCTION                  XR  technologies,  including  Augmented  Reality  (AR),  Mixed
                                                              Reality   (MR),   and   Virtual   Reality   (VR),   and
           The  metaverse  is  an  iteration  of  the  Internet  with
           immersive  and  hyperreal  3D  digital  virtual  worlds.  It  can   Holographic-Type  Communications  (HTC).  The  main
           recreate the physical world using technologies such as digital   contribution  of  this  keynote  is  two-fold.  First,  we  introduce
           twins,  avatars,  and  holograms.  Besides  creating  digital   fundamental  technologies  of  XR  and  HTC  and  identify  the
           models  of  physical  environments,  the  metaverse  allows  the   technical  gaps  to  provide  high  QoE  access  to  the  metaverse.
           existence  of  virtual  information,  objects,  human  beings,  and   Second,  we  find the p otential s olutions in 6G and beyond
                                                              wireless  systems  that  fill t hese g aps and d iscuss future
           environments  that  do  not  exist  in  the  physical  world.  The
           mixture  of  real  and  virtual  content  in  the  metaverse  can   research challenges.
          significantly   improve   users’   capabilities   for   work,   II.  METAVERSE AND CHALLENGES FOR EXTENDED
          entertainment, education, healthcare, and manufacturing [1].  REALITY AND HOLOGRAPHIC-TYPE COMMUNICATION
          Development  of  the  metaverse  includes  three  major  areas:
          (1)  metaverse  content/service  design,  (2)  metaverse  core  and   Wireless  communication  systems  are  used  in  the  physical
          edge  network  design,  and  (3)  fully  connected  networks  for   world  to  provide  users  with  access  to  the  metaverse  and
          metaverse devices in the physical world.            connect  machines  (sensors,  robots,  actuators,  etc.)  with
          First,  the  metaverse  virtual  content  and  services  emphasize   metaverse  computing  servers.  Wireless  systems  in  the
          social  connections  and  interactions  with  the  physical  world.   metaverse  mainly  have  the  following  two  types  of
          The  design  of  virtual  content  and  services  requires  digital   communication.
          computing, modeling, and rendering technologies.      • Human and Metaverse Communication (HMC). The
          Second,  the  core  and  edge  networks  are  needed  to  deliver   communication  between  human  beings  and  the
          metaverse  content  and  services  to  end  users.  Although   metaverse uses specialized devices, including HTC
          existing  computer  networks  can  provide  basic  metaverse   displays and sensors, XR HMDs, and legacy computers
          services,  the  newly-proposed  compute-  and  data-intensive   and smart devices. These devices connect the user in
          networks [2] and the New Internet Protocol (New IP) [3] are   the physical world with the content in the virtual world
          efficient in processing metaverse data packets.         and they have sensing units that can track users’ motion
          Last,  metaverse  devices,  sensors,  actuators,  and  displays   and gather input data which is used in the metaverse for
          must  be  fully  connected  considering  different  levels  of  data   computing. The computing results are sent back to
          rates,  latency,  and  reliability.  This  keynote  will  cover  all   users’ devices for display and actuation.
          three areas with special emphasis on wireless communication   • Machine and Metaverse Communication (MMC). The
          and networking in the second and third areas.           metaverse utilizes active and passive sensors to monitor
          5G  and  beyond  wireless  systems  have  enabled  the  creation   physical objects, machines, and environments. The
          and  development  of  the  metaverse.  However,  their   aggregated data can be used to develop hyperreal virtual
          performance  cannot  support  the  high  Quality-of-Experience   models in the metaverse. Also, the metaverse uses
          (QoE) metaverse. The most popular tools to get access to the   actuators to interact with and change the physical
          metaverse  are  the  extended  reality  (XR)  Head-Mounted   world. The communication between the metaverse and
          Displays  (HMDs)  [4].  However,  some  users  experience   sensors and actuators can use 6G and beyond solutions
          frustration,  eye  strain,  sickness,  and  prolonged  use  is   that support massive IoT where a large number of
          prohibitive  due  to  their  large  weight  and  low  resolution  of   devices can be connected within a small area.
          the HMDs [5]. Although working and living in the metaverse  Note  that  the  HMC  and  MMC  are  bidirectional,  which
          provides various choices and support that are not available in  reflects  the  interactions  between  the  physical  world  and  the
          reality,  the  experience  of  using  existing  HMDs  is  not  virtual  world.  Human  and  human  communications  and
          convenient  and  even  creates  anxiety  for  some  users,  machine  and  machine  communications  existed  before  the  era
          according to a recent study [5].                    of  the  metaverse.  They  can  use  existing  communication
          The  metaverse  has  become  one  of  the  driving  applications  technologies  without  using  any  metaverse  systems.  When  a
          for  6G  and  beyond  wireless  systems  since  5G  and  beyond  metaverse  user  communicates  with  another  user,  the
          wireless   systems   cannot   fully   address   wireless  communication becomes HMC since they have to go through
          communication  and  networking  issues.  It  is  anticipated  that  the  metaverse  systems.  Similarly,  when  two  machines
          the  6G  and  beyond  wireless  systems  will  provide  communicate  with  each  other  in  the  metaverse,  their
          high-data-rate,   low-latency,   high-reliability,   and  communication belongs to the MMC
          fully-connected  data  communications  for  metaverse  devices,  This  keynote  focuses  on  XR  and  HTC,  which  belong  to
          which  can  enable  users  to  comfortably  enter  and  use  HMC technologies. Computers and smart devices can be used
          metaverse  applications  with  high  QoEs.  In  this  keynote,  we  to  access  metaverse  content.  However,  the  user  experience  is
          will  focus  on  wireless  communication  and  networking  not immersive, i.e., users need to look at screens with a limited
          challenges  for  metaverse  accessing  technologies,  namely,  the  size.  As  the  content  and  activities  in  the  metaverse  increase,








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