Metaverse applications will drive massive investments towards digitization, automation and enhanced interactivity of physical systems along with human experiences. So, requirements for metaverse applications are critical for development of any metaverse project.
Basically, there are 3 requirements for metaverse applications. The first one is computation requirement, next is storage requirement and the third and last one is communication requirements for metaverse applications.
This post will first highlight some of the metaverse applications in use today. Next, it will explain in detail all the 3 requirements for metaverse application-computation, storage and communication. At the end, it will show the requirements for metaverse application in the context of a VR Streaming application.
METAVERSE APPLICATION IN USE TODAY
For those whom the term metaverse is new, no need to worry. I have written numerous articles on this blog meteversetroop.com explaining what metaverse is.
You can get a good concept of metaverse from the following post.
There are many metaverse applications in use today. Some of the important metaverse applications that are shaping our lives are listed below.
All the above applications have massive requirements and are critical. So, the next section is dedicated to requirements for metaverse applications.
REQUIREMENTS FOR METAVERSE APPLICATIONS
Metaverse is predicted to be a global digital platform. It is a place where you consume real-time interactive and immersive experiences that combine physical and digital space.
There are basically 3 requirements for metaverse applications. They are listed below.
- Computation Requirements For Metaverse Application
- Storage Requirements For Metaverse Application
- Communication Requirements For Metaverse Application
All the requirements for metaverse applications are described below one by one.
COMPUTATION REQUIREMENTS FOR METAVERSE APPLICATION
Metaverse applications are blending of physical and digital space. It requires immersiveness and its basic requirement for any metaverse applications. Providing a rich multimedia immersive environment in the metaverse requires high computation.
In industrial application of metaverse, massive computational resources are required to build a digital twin or simulation environment. This application also requires huge computing power.
For example, running AAA game like Fortnite requires teraFLOPS of graphics horsepower. As the user base and demand for metaverse project like Fortnite, The Sandbox, etc is increasing day by day, imagine how much computing power will be required.
VIDEO PROCESSING
Everything in metaverse need be fully immersive to create the real metaverse feeling. Even, basic video processing tasks like
- Object recognition
- Object Tracking
needs huge computational complexity. This computation requirement increases substantially when the metaverse is involved.
It is hard to imagine the amount of computational requirements for metaverse applications when massive numbers of users are involved along with digital assets.
SERVICE PROCESSING
Many metaverse applications involve multiple processing tasks for running separate services. These separate services operate on source data streams as well as intermediate data streams to create consumable experiences.
For example, in VR streaming there are separate services for coding, decoding and rendering functions. The requirement of each service function may also depend on hardware like CPU, GPU, computing hardware, etc.
STORAGE REQUIREMENTS FOR METAVERSE APPLICATION
As the popularity of metaverse is increasing, so are its users. As the user increases digital assets in the metaverse and User Generated Content (UGC) are crowding into the metaverse. So, there is a need for storage requirements for metaverse applications.
In the next 2 sections, I will explain how digital assets and VR streaming is putting pressure on storage requirements for metaverse applications.
DIGITAL ASSETS
Digital Assets is one of the key building blocks of metaverse applications and a major component of the metaverse architecture. Digital assets are used to make the immersive experience of metaverse as per real time interactions.
You can take example of digital twin. Digital twin are represents the properties of physical systems and are essential components if industrial metaverse applications. To know more about digital twins in metaverse, you can read it from the following post.
Digital assets require petabytes of storage requirement. The demand for storage requirements for metaverse applications is increasing day by day.
VR STREAMING
VR streaming application renders 3D scenarios from digital scenes. This is a storage hungry application that imposes tremendous resource requirements in metaverse.
For example, a VR headset that supports 8K resolution 360 degree video streaming requires 10TB storage space for 20 minutes video. This is incase of entry level VR. Imagine how much space would be required for advanced VR.
COMMUNICATION REQUIREMENTS FOR METAVERSE APPLICATION
Communication, Interaction, Exchange of data , etc are all important and critical processes going in any metaverse. There are basically three types of communication in the metaverse as listed below.
- User to User interaction/communication in metaverse
- Virtual Assets to Virtual Assets interaction/communication in metaverse
- User to Virtual Assets interaction/communication in metaverse and vice versa.
LIVE STREAMING
Wearable devices, Internet of Things (IoT) and sensors are a medium of interaction in the metaverse. These devices collect a lot of data from the physical world in real time. Most of this data is live streamed into the metaverse.
Communication requirements for metaverse applications are needed for 2 types of data as mentioned below.
- Live Data Streams
- Pre-Produced Digital Assets
This type of data will induce a lot of interaction which will continue to accelerate network traffic growth. As of today metaverse drives mostly video traffic that amounts to 80% of today’s internet traffic.
LATENCY
End-to-end latency requirements are critical requirements for metaverse applications. Most of the metaverse applications impose end-to-end delay constraints. The delay constraints should be less than 20 millisecond.
For tactile applications the delay should be as low as 1 millisecond. If this latency exceeds many problems arises like lagged response and discomfort to users like dizziness and nausea.
CONCLUSION
In this post I have listed some of the metaverse applications in use today. Next, I have explained in details all the 3 requirements for metaverse application-computation, storage and communication. At the end, it I have show the requirements for metaverse application in the context of a VR Streaming application.
