What is the Metaverse? An Immersive Cyberspace and Open Challenges

TL;DR

The paper explores the concept of the Metaverse as an immersive, blended virtual-physical space, discussing its development, key technological enablers, and the challenges involved in building and maintaining such a virtual environment.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of the development, essential technology enablers, and open challenges of the Metaverse from both technological and ecosystem perspectives.

Findings

Identifies networks, systems, and users as critical enablers.

Highlights technological and ecosystem challenges.

Emphasizes the importance of integrated development for the Metaverse.

Abstract

The Metaverse refers to a virtual-physical blended space in which multiple users can concurrently interact with a unified computer-generated environment and other users, which can be regarded as the next significant milestone of the current cyberspace. This article primarily discusses the development and challenges of the Metaverse. We first briefly describe the development of cyberspace and the necessity of technology enablers. Accordingly, our bottom-up approach highlights three critical technology enablers for the Metaverse: networks, systems, and users. Also, we highlight a number of indispensable issues, under technological and ecosystem perspectives, that build and sustain the Metaverse.