How edge devices and infrastructure will shape the metaverse experience

If it lives up to its billing, the metaverse will offer a unique opportunity for users to immerse themselves in a virtual environment. For this to be achieved, there must be seamless interaction between the participant and the virtual environment in real time. That means interaction must be highly responsive, ensuring that all graphical elements update rapidly to create a sense of presence in the virtual world.

In this, edge data centers and devices are set to play a crucial role.

To ensure a successful experience, the user must be able to view the rendered virtual environment with utmost clarity, and the system must respond in real time to any gestures or actions by the user.  Edge computing, networking and related advancements are required for the metaverse to prove out estimates like Accenture’s. That consultancy expects the metaverse to fuel a $1 trillion revenue opportunity by the end of 2025.

Clearly, building the metaverse’s foundation requires layer upon layer of behind-the-scenes technology, such as data centers and network infrastructure. The latency requirements of the metaverse are near zero, and this necessitates the need for data centers that are in close proximity to users, with blazing-fast network speeds.

As we delve further into a new era of virtual reality, decentralized edge data centers and devices are set to play a crucial role. By providing seamless access to the metaverse for users from all corners of the globe, these technologies hold the key to transforming our digital experiences in the near future. Edge computing can revolutionize the way we experience the virtual world. 

One of the potential problems that can arise in both traditional and cloud data center architectures is latency, which can create slow response times and delays, ultimately leading to a suboptimal user experience. In addition, poor reliability or availability can deter visitors, while high bandwidth costs can significantly impact the organization’s metaverse budgets. As the demand for metaverse applications continues to grow, these potential challenges could be a significant barrier to adoption. Therefore, it is essential to overcome these obstacles to ensure that the metaverse offers an immersive and seamless experience for users while also being cost-effective and reliable for organizations.

Cloud-native edge infrastructure can address these shortcomings and provide optimized service chaining. It can handle a tremendous amount of data processing while delivering cost-effective, terabit-scale performance and reduced power consumption. In doing so, edge computing can move past closed networking models to meet the demanding data processing requirements of the metaverse.

“Edge computing allows data to be processed at or near the data source, implying that commands and processes will occur promptly. As the metaverse will require massive data simultaneously, processing data quickly and seamlessly depends on proximity,” Prasad Joshi, SVP and head of emerging technology solutions at Infosys, told VentureBeat. “Edge computing offers the ability to process such information on a headset or on the device, thereby making that immersive experience much more effective.”

The emergence of the metaverse has also led to a significant surge in data generation, and the data centers that handle these workloads generate enormous amounts of heat due to the massive power consumption required to enable AR/VR (augmented reality/virtual reality) applications. The power, space and cooling limitations of legacy architecture further exacerbate this data surge. While these challenges impact consumer-based metaverse applications, the stakes are much higher for enterprise use cases.

Joshi believes that the real-time immersive nature of the metaverse depends on the expansive use of the cloud and says that digital twins will have a significant impact through edge technologies.

“As more and more AI applications experience extreme growth, it will be critical to employ edge computing to ensure cloud stability. Hyperscalers must adapt to acknowledge the emerging shift toward sustainability in cloud and edge computing to keep up with increasing demand,” said Joshi. 

As metaverse applications continue to proliferate, the need for service function chaining to automate network traffic flows becomes more critical. Unfortunately, service chaining based on virtual machines still suffers from duplication, latency, high costs and resource inefficiencies.

Ranny Haiby, CTO of networking, edge/IoT and access at Linux Foundation, believes that end devices will always be constrained by power, size and weight. Therefore a lot of the processing can be offloaded to the edge. 

“Based on the processing, storage and network latency requirements of different metaverse applications and protocols, there will likely be a continuum of processing starting from the end-user devices, the network edge and the cloud. The edge emerges as the sweet spot to fulfill all requirements for a multimodal and tactile user experience,” said Haiby. 

Haiby explained that as the metaverse calls for ubiquitous high-bandwidth connectivity, there also needs to be a high degree of automation in how edge resources are deployed. 

“Edge automation and orchestration technologies will play a key role in the success of metaverse use cases. In an ideal world, the edge services supporting the metaverse apps should seamlessly follow the end users as they move between cell sites, wireless access points and fixed access points,” added Haiby.