When Facebook changed the name of its parent company to Meta in 2021, it signaled a defining moment about the impact of the coming metaverse. Yet two years later, the metaverse still remains a fuzzy concept that means different things to different people.
One definition of the metaverse is a virtual reality space that enables users to interact with other users in a computer-generated environment. Although the metaverse is not mature, industry observers recognize the immense power that upcoming 6G networks will have to unleash real-time collaboration in extended reality (XR) environments.
The goal of the metaverse is to provide a convincing parallel digital space for people working, shopping, or socializing in the analog real world. The next generation of 6G cellular technology will help by making huge improvements in bandwidth utilization, data delivery, and application enablement.
Many technical challenges must be overcome for the metaverse to reach its full potential. Making progress will require the development of networks and software that can deliver seamless global connectivity, near-zero latency, and startling new forms of data analysis and visualization.
Most importantly, the metaverse will require a robust 6G infrastructure to enable such massive volumes of network data traffic. 6G is expected to offer peak download speeds of hundreds of gigabits per second, half-millisecond latency, and ubiquitous, reliable coverage. But achieving this level of performance over global networks will require new network technologies as part of the 6G standards that are in early development by industry, academia, and governments.
Challenges and tradeoffs to building the metaverse
Today, the metaverse is a work in progress with many ongoing barriers for vendors, integrators, and customers. Network latency is a critical constraint that will only achieve its next iteration of improvement with the rollout of pervasive 6G networks. Latency is the enemy of “presence” for participants in XR environments; this is the state one feels when convincingly immersed in a simulated world. The illusion of presence can be disrupted by interrupted streaming content or delayed reaction times.
A low motion-to-photon latency of less than 20 milliseconds is required to convince the human brain that it really feels immersed in a virtual world, but this means that metaverse developers must achieve much better performance to relay the required vast streams of data in real time – even when the interactions are coming from distant parts of the world.
To support the illusion of presence, developers will need to improve both downlink and uplink performance to ensure the seamless connectivity and immersive experiences that users expect. In particular, such low latency on the uplink is beyond the potential of most current 5G networks. Developers anticipate that 6G will help solve this crucial metaverse uplink problem for high-risk fields such as aerospace, defense, and emergency services.
The growing complexity of integrating disparate technologies is another challenge. On top of 6G, developers will add powerful building blocks for smart devices and sensors that are plugged into the Internet of Things. This formative metaverse will continue to take shape through the integration of systems for spatial and edge computing, assisted by 3D modeling templates.
Powerful artificial intelligence will emerge as another enabler for 3D environments and visual representations. For instance, auto manufacturers are developing new lightweight AR glasses that could help drivers integrate data from the dashboard, display, and onboard sensors. We can even foresee infotainment, navigation, and hands-free calling all being blended into a seamless AR experience within the glasses. Developing wearables such as these will not be without challenges though, requiring advanced radio interconnection, very low power consumption, and advanced computing for sensor fusion.
Benefits of the future metaverse
By incorporating high-throughput computing and the connectivity capabilities of 6G, the traditional concept of network boundaries will start to recede. We can imagine numerous potential benefits of the metaverse coming into focus by that point, including:
Improving research & development: The metaverse will enable close interaction between product stakeholders and end users throughout the design phase regardless of their physical locations. This advance should help bring better products to market more quickly by eliminating the barriers between developers, operational teams, and quality assurance testers. 6G will also enable creative ways for people to interact with their surroundings, including instantaneous communications, connected and cooperative robotics, and wireless interactions using artificial intelligence.
Increasing sustainability: As the metaverse grows in use, it could help reduce carbon emissions in the manufacturing sector by improving the effectiveness of digital twins that are used to simulate real-world factories and warehouses. In many cases, steps such as testing, monitoring, and predictive maintenance could be performed without requiring mechanical systems. As the deployment of digital twins increases, ABI Research predicts that this market will grow tenfold to $33.9 billion by 2030, up from $3.5 billion in 2021.
The metaverse could also help reduce global travel by bringing together co-workers and partners for realistic meetings in virtual environments, even for large conferences and online events, reducing travel-related emissions and saving time. Likewise, retailers could adopt realistic “virtual dressing rooms” for consumers to shop for apparel and shoes to reduce the costs of shipping logistics, packaging, and stocking returned clothing.
Driving creativity: As the metaverse expands in scope and reach, it will enable a network effect of growing global connections that facilitate new relationships. These virtual relationships could help people and organizations overcome language barriers and cultural differences to improve idea-sharing. The metaverse will have a positive impact on education and training and in addition to facilitating deeper peer connections, will also provide new approaches to healthcare through virtual consultations with doctors about emerging treatments and therapies.
6G will be key to enabling the metaverse
The possibilities of the metaverse seem endless, yet those tantalizing benefits can only be realized atop a dependable 6G infrastructure. The flexibility and capability of the network, the global coverage it provides, and the use of distributed computing and sensing systems - some maybe even embedded into people - will result in a more seamless interworking of various communications technologies.
Governments around the world are already incorporating 6G rules into the legal frameworks of their national statutes, but more work must be done. The demand for spectrum will only continue, and the complexity of coexistence issues and competing needs will become harder for regulators to manage. Likewise, policies must be established to govern the growth of AI in communications systems.
Not all 6G technologies will make their way into the mainstream as envisioned, but enough of them should succeed for us to stand up a sturdy metaverse built on 6G networks by the mid-2030s. But by then, of course, it is quite likely that we will take these novel virtual worlds for granted as simply being a background part of our daily lives.
