Page 18 - Kaleidoscope Academic Conference Proceedings 2022

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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