Neal Stephenson when coined the term “Metaverse” in 1992, was completely unaware of the turbulence this term can create in the market. Though the term was slid under the carpet for many years but now it is a tree on which every other technology like AI, ML, and 5G extends its branches. Yes, it is all related to the eccentricity created by “Metaverse”.Metaverse has given humanity to reenvision the digital world, connectivity, internet, and even infotainment and entertainment.
The comfort of doing anything or everything in the comfort of your home and induction to the terms like NFT (non Fungible Token) is driving the Meta force. Most recently, IT & Service firm Tech Mahinda launches TechMVerse, its own metaverse practice which will allow its customers to create immersive experiences and transact in the Metaverse. Cryptocurrency like Shiba Inu is owning its own metaverse. It might be a trembling to hear but the medical field was one of the early adopters of Metaverse. During Covid, WHO used AR technology and smart devices to train coronavirus responders, while psychiatrists used VR to treat soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder. The wave of Metaverse is so electric that, the biggest social network company Facebook rebranded itself as Meta.
Metaverse’s 5G Connection
Metaverse needs ubiquitous access to all multiverses that metaverse connects to and for the same it requires a massive network of wireless connectivity. In terms of ubiquitous access, there are numerous wireless connectivity technologies today: the most popular being Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and cellular technologies. Bluetooth lacks range, rate, and reliability. Current generations of Wi-Fi offer the required rate but suffer from congestion. Here comes the 5G’s connection. With the rollout of 5G, Faster connectivity speeds, ultra-low latency, and greater bandwidth are advancing societies, transforming industries, and dramatically enhancing day-to-day experiences. 5G will create better opportunities for people and businesses.
5G offers rate, range, reliability, latency and so much more. Indeed, the average DL/UL data rates provided by 5G today are 200Mbps/30Mbps per user. Depending on the choice of the scheduler, radio bearer configurations, and radio conditions, the achievable latencies are in the order of 10ms for the frequency range 1 (FR1, i.e., below 6GHz) and 5ms for FR2 (above 24GHz, i.e., mm-wave bands). Reliability can today be in the order of 99.99 percent with five to six nines of reliability achievable over the coming years.
Metaverse is a new and exciting platform for the audience and people are loving the show while using it. Though for this platform loaded with advanced technology need an advanced set of an ecosystem for connectivity.5G is enabling those need and address the metaverse ecosystem with the right set of connectivity. For its Ubiquitous access to all multi-verses that form the metaverse; 5G provides seamless vertical handovers i.e to/fro wi-fi, consistent coverage and capacity as well as mobility support. It also provides global reach including roaming support.
While contrary to Metaverse’s feature of accessing Lightweight and XR devices to experience the wonders of this platform; the successor of 4G provides Low latency and reliable communication to enable devices to offload more to the edge and leverage edge rendering/edge streaming. For Cloud and Edge-Cloud (MEC) capabilities, it provides low latency, offloads processing to save battery, and Enhanced render the level of detail (LOD). If communication with web developers and their easy access is considered, there are APIs to give developers access to 5G as a “network platform” Developer and Easy bind in of APIs/SDKs into available developer platforms.
5G is making it look like an easy game, albeit it will take overcoming some more bumps to make this platform a success for all.
